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THE 



EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 



By FENELON. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 



BY 



KATE LUPTON, MA. (Vanderbilt University), 



-o-oJO^CX>- 



i y < 







BOSTON, U. 
PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY. 

1891. 



if^s-^6 



Copyright, 1890, 
By KATE LUPTON, 



All Rights Reserved. 






Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Boston, TJ.S.A. 
Presswork by Ginn & Co., Boston, U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 



-»<>•- 



In this, which has been so aptly termed the woman's cen- 
tury, no book that bears upon the aims and methods that 
should characterize the training of girls, can fail to possess a 
certain intrinsic inteiest. The following treatise on that sub- 
ject was written by the Archbishop of Cambray while he was 
still only the Abbe* de F6nelon, for his friend, the Duchess de 
Beauvilliers, as a practical guide in the education of her 
children. Given to the public in 1687, it was at once received 
with the greatest favor, and laid the foundation of that high 
reputation which afterwards brought such distinguished honors 
to its author. Lamartine and other critics have compared it 
favorably with the celebrated " Emile " of Rousseau, and 
denominated it "a masterpiece of delicacy and reason." 

While the book affords a striking illustration of the truth that 
genius is of no age or country, and soars into realms from 
which broad views of men and things are caught, it is not 
entirely unaffected by the author's environment. Often Fene- 
lon seems to shrink from the conclusions to which his own 
insight and logic lead him. Broad, indeed, however, must the 
culture here proposed for women have appeared to his con- 
temporaries. Latin, history, biography, travels, poetry, and the 
nobler developments of music and art, as well as the prin- 
ciples and phraseology of common law, the operations of 

iii 



IV PREFACE. 

trade, the processes of manufactures, and the minutest details 
of domestic economy, are all included in the course of instruc- 
tion blocked out. 

But the chief merit of this little volume consists not in its 
noble conception of the position of woman, and valuable sug- 
gestions for her training, nor even in the exquisite finish and 
almost poetic beauty of style, which has been at once the 
delight and despair of the translator. At least two-thirds of 
the contents treat of a far more interesting and important 
question than any that concerns the peculiar needs and dangers 
of girls ; that is, how children of either sex can be trained so 
as to produce the best possible results in disposition and 
character. This is a subject on which Fenelon is of all men 
best fitted to speak, if we may believe the accounts given by 
historians of the wonderful change wrought by him in his pupil, 
the grandson of Louis XIV. This prince is described as 
" terrible from his birth, passionate, bitter, vindictive, and even 
cruel by nature." Under the mild but firm sway of his gifted 
tutor, he was completely transformed, and became the hope, 
instead of the terror, of the court. The sympathetic insight 
into the heart of childhood and wise skill in dealing with it, 
that enabled Fenelon to work such a seeming miracle upon 
his royal pupil, appear in every detail of the system of training 
children which he has so carefully elaborated in the " Edu- 
cation of Girls." Whoever has charge of little children, 
whether in home or school, will find many profitable hints as 
to their management in its pages. Many of the ideas of the 
kindergarten are here advanced, and even that very rnodern 
institution, the Normal School, is suggested. 



PREFACE. V 

The translation of such a work into adequate English pre- 
sents many difficulties. The effort has been made to adhere 
as closely to the original as the difference between the genius 
of the French language and that of ours will allow. No portion 
of the treatise has been omitted, and even the quotations from 
the Scriptures have been left in the form in which Fenelon 
gives them — that of more or less free renderings from the 

Vulgate. 

KATE LUPTON. 

Auburn, Alabama. 
Nov. 26, 1890. 



CONTENTS. 



■*o»- 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Importance of the Education of Girls . • . .n 



CHAPTER II. 
Disadvantages of the Ordinary Methods of Education . . 15 

CHAPTER III. 
The Foundations of an Education 19 

CHAPTER IV. 
Imitation a Source of Danger ....»»• 26 

CHAPTER V. 
Indirect Instruction .....*••• 28 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Use of Stories for Children ...... 49 

CHAPTER VII. 
Method of Instilling the First Principles of Religion . .57 

CHAPTER VIII. 

^ Instruction on the Decalogue, the Sacraments, and Prayer . 75 

vii 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

Several Faults Characteristic of Girls ..... 85 

CHAPTER X. 
The Vanity of Beauty and Adornments 90 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Special Duties of Women . 96 

CHAPTER XII. 
Continuation of the Duties of Women 102 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Governesses 114 




FENELON. 



-»<>♦- 



Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fenelon, one 
of the greatest writers and one of the most illustrious 
men of the seventeenth century, was born in 165 1. His 
father, a nobleman of Southern France, destined his son 
for the Church. It was a happy choice, for the lad be- 
lieved that he heard the divine call in his heart. His 
education, which was begun in his father's chateau, was 
completed under the Jesuits, — then the ablest teachers 
in Europe, — at Paris. At fifteen, while still a student, 
Fenelon preached his first sermon. For several years 
he labored in the parish of St. Sulpice, where one of his 
chief duties was to catechise and instruct the children 
of the poor. 

His ambition was to become a missionary among the 
Indians of Canada. Had his wish been granted, his 
career might have been sketched in advance. He would 
have gone out with one of those little bands of devoted 
Catholics who made themselves exiles for Christ's sake. 

Like them, he would have lived for a time in the Ameri- 

1 



2 FENELON. 

can wilderness, making his home in the smoky wigwams 
of the Canadian savages. He would have ended by 
falling prisoner to some hostile tribe, who would have 
first scalped their captive, and then tortured him to 
death. But instead of going to the red men of the 
forest, Fenelon was destined to serve as a missionary at 
home. Of the two, the polished French court, cold, 
crafty, "honey-combed with hypocrisy," needed him 
most. He was first called to use his skill in religious 
teaching, however, with a very different class. An 
institution existed in Paris known as the convent of 
the New Catholics. It was founded for the purpose of 
forcing the daughters of Protestant parents to renounce 
their faith. The arguments used to convince these 
young girls were those of the prison-cell, the scourge, 
and starvation, — at least, these were the arguments 
that appear to have been relied upon to convince those 
who failed to see the force of the reasoning employed 
by the priests. Unfortunately a considerable percentage 
of these girls, instead of becoming Catholics, either died 
or went mad. On the whole it was thought advisable 
to adopt a different method. The convent authorities 
remembered ^Esop's fable about the man who, when the 
wind and the storm could not force him to give up his 
cloak, finally gave it up when the sun tried his powers 
on him. Fenelon had the sun's secret. He did not 



FENELON. 3 

storm the obstinate hearts; he melted them. Gentle- 
ness won victories denied to brutality ; and, as Paul 
persuaded the heathen to become Christians, so Fenelon 
persuaded Protestants to become Catholics like himself. 
In fact, so wonderful was the influence of his winning 
sweetness of character, — a trait inherited from his 
mother, — that a noted English sceptic, hard-headed 
and scoffing though he was, said, speaking of an inter- 
view with Fenelon, " I had to get away from him as 
fast as I could, or he would certainly have ended by 
converting me." 

During his ten years in this convent the young divine 
met with gratifying success ; and it was while thus 
engaged that he wrote his celebrated treatise on the 
Education of Girls, of which a translation follows. This 
work was composed for the special purpose of assist- 
ing a friend in the task of rearing a large family of 
daughters, and displays a profound knowledge of the 
workings of the hearts and minds of children. It has 
a decided historical interest, since it marks the begin- 
ning, in France at least, of a movement which resulted 
in giving to girls those intellectual advantages which 
had hitherto been denied them. Many of its maxims 
are highly suggestive ; and not the least of its merits 
is the spirit of the book, which, if heeded, might help 
us to correct the excessive individualism and self-asser- 



4 FENELON. 

tion of our times, by cultivating those qualities of 
self-restraint, which, if less brilliant, are certainly not 
less useful. 

In 1685 Fenelon was to try his power in a broader 
and more difficult field. That year Louis XIV. revoked 
the Edict of Nantes, and in doing so revoked toleration 
to the Protestant religion throughout his realm. To 
make the revocation more effective, the King's dra- 
goons were quartered in the Protestant districts, with 
liberty to use any methods, short of downright murder, 
to compel the heretics to see the error of their ways. 
Madame de Maintenon, whose influence over Louis was 
unbounded, felt sure that these " missionaries in cavalry 
boots," as she jocosely called them, would succeed in 
bringing, or driving, every Huguenot into the fold of 
the Church. She was disappointed ; and, as a last re- 
sort, the King resolved to send Fenelon to try what he 
could do. The attempt was made, but with only partial 
success. Perhaps if the good Abbe had been sent in 
the start, the result might have been different, since, 
like the zealous Catholic who counselled Catherine de 
Medicis, Fenelon believed that a good life was the best 
possible weapon to put down heresy. 

A year later we find that the King had chosen the 
Abbe as preceptor to his grandson, the Duke of Bur- 
gundy, heir to the throne of France. By patience, tact, 



FENELON. 5 

and firmness, Fenelon succeeded in taming the passion- 
ate royal blood of this fiery young prince. Had the 
young man lived, his virtues, if not too negative, might 
possibly have saved France from the worst excesses of 
that revolution which in the next century was to sweep 
over the land like a deluge ; but he did not live, and all 
that remains of Fenelon's work is the famous story of 
TelemachuSy which he wrote for the guidance and in- 
struction of the young Duke whom he hoped to trans- 
form into a second St. Louis. 

In 1695 the King made Fenelon Archbishop of Cam- 
brai, a city on the extreme northern border of France. 
Meanwhile Fenelon had become interested in the 
teachings of Madame Guyon, a religious mystic or 
quietist, who laid more emphasis on the soul's inner 
light and communion with God than on the creed or 
ceremonies of the Church. Poor Madame Guyon soon 
had an opportunity to test her quietism in a solitary 
cell of the Bastille, and Bossuet, the champion of 
French Catholicism, wrote a refutation of her doctrine. 
Archbishop Fenelon replied to Bossuet in a book which 
the King regarded as a sort of defence or half-defence 
of Madame Guyon. The result was that the Catholic 
authorities of France took the alarm, and in the end 
the Pope formally condemned Fenelon's book. Louis 
banished the Archbishop of Cambrai from Versailles, 



6 FENELON. 

and forbade his showing himself at the royal palace. 
Fenelon not only accepted the Pope's condemnation 
without complaint, but actually warned his own flock 
from the pulpit not to read or retain his reply to 
Bossuet. 

To bring matters to a climax, fate ordained that just 
then an unfaithful secretary should carry off and get 
published the Telemaclms which Fenelon had then no 
intention of issuing from the press. Louis XIV. read 
the book, and found in it, as he believed, an attack on 
his absolutism. The King hated nothing so much as 
independence of thought. Fenelon had dared to think 
for himself not only in religious matters, but also in 
regard to government. In Telemaclms the Archbishop 
taught that the people are not made for the king, but 
the king for the people. No satire was intended on 
Louis, but that monarch so interpreted it, and he 
forthwith declared the Archbishop's banishment per- 
petual. 

From that time until his death F6nelon remained an 
exile at Cambrai. He spent the whole of his revenue, 
except the small sum that sufficed to meet his own 
wants, in works of charity. The nobles of Versailles 
had forgotten him ; but the poor and the distressed 
opened their hearts to this man who shared his life with 
them. In 171 5 the release from exile came; Fenelon 



FENELON. 7 

went to his grave followed by the tears and the bless- 
ings of thousands. That same year Louis XIV. died, 
leaving his realm bankrupt and his people suffering 
from the effects of more than half a century of royal 
wars, royal extravagance, and royal follies. All along 
the road leading to the King's tomb multitudes gath- 
ered : they gathered to curse the coffin as it passed. 



THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 



THE 



EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 



^O*" 



CHAPTER I. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

Nothing is more neglected than the education of 
girls. Custom and maternal caprice often decide the 
matter entirely, and it is taken for granted that little 
instruction should be given to their sex. The education 
of boys is regarded as a most important affair with 
reference to the public welfare ; and although almost 
as many mistakes are made in it as in the education of 
girls, at least the world is convinced that, there, much 
wisdom is necessary to success. On that subject, the 
most competent persons have undertaken to lay down 
rules. How many teachers and colleges for boys do we 
see ! What vast expenditures in their behalf for edi- 
tions of books, for scientific researches, for methods of 
teaching the languages, and for the choice of professors ! 
All these great preparations are often more pretentious 
than effective, but at least they mark the lofty concep- 
tion that the world has of the education of boys. As 
for girls, it is said, they should not be learned ; inquisi- 
tiveness makes them vain and affected : it is enough for 
them to know how some day to manage their house- 
holds and to obey their husbands without argument. 

ii 



i 



12 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

Men do not fail to make use of the fact that they have 
known many women whom learning has made ridiculous, 
after which they think themselves justified in blindly 
abandoning their daughters to the guidance of ignorant 
and indiscreet mothers. 

True, we must be on our guard against making them 
ridiculous blue-stockings. Women, as a rule, have still 
weaker and more inquisitive minds than men ; therefore 
it is not expedient to engage them in studies that may 
turn their heads : they are not destined to govern tiie 
state, to make war, or to minister in holy tjiings ; so they 
may pass by certain extended fields of knowledge that 
belong to politics, the art of war, jurisprudence, phi- 
losophy, and theology. Most of the mechanic arts, even, 
are not suited to women, who are fashioned for moder- 
ate exertions only. Their bodies as well as their minds 
are less strong and robust than those of men. As a 
compensation, nature has given them for their portion 
neatness, industry, and thrift, in order to keep them 
quietly occupied in their homes. 

But what follows from this natural weakness of 
women ? The weaker they are, the more important it 
is to strengthen them. Have they not duties to fulfil, 
and duties, too, that lie at the foundation of all human 
life ? Is it not the women, who ruin or uphold families, 
who regulate every detail of domestic life, and who con- 
sequently decide what touches the whole human race 
most nearly ? In this way they exert a controlling influ- 
ence on the good or bad morals of nearly all the world. 
A discreet, diligent, pious woman is the soul of an entire 
large household ; she provides in it alike for temporal 
and spiritual welfare. Even men, who have exclusive 



IMPORTANCE OF THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 1 3 

authority in public, cannot by their decisions, establish 
a real prosperity unless women aid them in its achieve- 
ment. 

The world is not an abstraction ; it is the aggregate of 
all its families. And who can regulate these with nicer 
care than women, who, besides their natural authority 
and assiduity in their homes, have the additional advan- 
tage of being born careful, attentive to details, industri- 
ous, winning, and persuasive ? Or can men hope for 
any happiness for themselves if their most intimate 
companionship — that of marriage — be turned to bitter- 
ness ? And as to children, who will eventually consti- 
tute the entiife human race, — what will become of them 
if their mothers spoil them in their early years ? 

Such, then', are the occupations of women, which are 
no less important to the public than those of men, since 
they involve the tasks of managing a household, mak- 
ing a husband happy, and training children well. Virtue, 
moreover, is no less incumbent on women than on men ; 
and, not to speak of the good or harm they may do to 
mankind, women constitute half of the human race 
redeemed by the blood of Christ and destined to eternal 
life. 

In conclusion, we must consider, besides the good that 
women do if properly brought up, the evil they may 
cause in the world when they lack a training that inspires 
virtue. It is evident that a bad education is productive 
of more harm in the case of women than in that of men, 
since the excesses of the latter often proceed both from 
the bad training received from their mothers and from 
the passions awakened in them at a later age by other 
women. What intrigues, what subversions of law and 



14 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

morality, what bloody wars, what innovations against 
religion, what revolutions in government caused by the 
profligacy of women, are presented to us in history ! 
Such is the proof of the importance of training girls 
well: let us inquire into the means of accomplishing 
this object. 



DISADVANTAGES OF ORDINARY METHODS. 1 5 



CHAPTER II. 

DISADVANTAGES OF THE ORDINARY METHODS OF 

EDUCATION. 

A girl becomes listless and is at a loss how to occupy 
herself innocently, because of her ignorance. When she 
has reached a certain age without giving her attention 
to things of real moment, she can neither have a taste 
for them nor appreciate their value ; everything that is 
serious seems dreary to her, and everything that de- 
mands continued attention wearies her. The inclination 
to pleasure so strong in youth, the example of persons 
of the same age absorbed in amusement, everything 
tends to make her shrink from an orderly and industri- 
ous life. In these earlier years she lacks the experience 
and authority requisite for the oversight of anything in 
her parents' home. She does not even recognize the 
importance of applying herself to such matters unless 
her mother has taken the pains to call her attention to 
it in particular instances. If she be of the upper classes, 
she is exempt from manual labor. She is at work, there- 
fore, for a few hours of the day only, because people 
say, without knowing why, that it is right for women to 
have something to do ; but often this is a mere pretence, 
and she will not accustom herself to protracted effort. 

Under these circumstances, what is a girl to do ? The 
companionship of a mother who watches her, who scolds 
her, who thinks she is bringing her up well by pardon- 



1 6 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

ing nothing in her, who is stiff with her, who makes her 
the victim of her whims, and who appears to her always 
weighed down with all domestic cares, cramps and repels 
her ;• while she is surrounded by flattering maidservants 
who, seeking to ingratiate themselves with her by ser- 
vile and dangerous attentions, carry out all her fancies 
and talk to her of all that can give her a distaste for 
what is good. Piety appears to her an insipid occupa- 
tion and its principles fatal to all pleasures. With what, 
then, shall she employ herself? With nothing useful. 
This lack of application even becomes an incurable 
habit. 

Behold, then, a great void that we cannot hope to fill 
with substantial things ; frivolous ones must, therefore, 
take their place. In this state of idleness, a girl gives 
herself up to indolence ; and indolence, which is a lan- 
guor of the soul, is an inexhaustible source of ennui. 
She forms the habit of sleeping a third longer than is 
necessary for perfect health. This long sleep only 
serves to enervate her, to make her more delicate, and 
more exposed to revolts of the flesh. A moderate 
amount of sleep, on the contrary, accompanied by regu- 
lar exercise, makes one cheerful, vigorous, and robust ; 
and secures, without doubt, the true perfection of the 
body — not to mention the advantages that accrue to 
the mind. This idleness and self-indulgence, being 
united with ignorance, produce a hurtful susceptibility 
to the charms of amusements and plays ; it is these also 
that excite an indiscreet and insatiable curiosity. 

Well-informed persons, who are occupied with serious 
matters, have usually only a moderate curiosity. What 
they know gives them a contempt for much of which 



DISADVANTAGES OF ORDINARY METHODS. \J 

they are ignorant ; they see the uselessness and folly of 
most of the information that petty minds, that know 
nothing and have nothing to do, are eager to acquire. 

On the other hand, idle and badly taught girls have 
ever-wandering imaginations. In the absence of solid 
food their curiosity turns eagerly to foolish and dan- 
gerous objects. Those that have talent often set them- 
selves up for learned women, and read every book that 
can feed their vanity. They delight in romances, in 
comedies, and in tales of marvellous adventures in which 
unhallowed love is concerned. They acquire a fanciful 
turn of mind from familiarity with the grandiloquent lan- 
guage of the heroes of romance : thus they unfit them- 
selves for real life ; for all those airy fine sentiments, all 
those generous emotions, all those adventures invented 
by the authors of romances to gratify the fancy, have 
no connection with the real motives that actuate man- 
kind and decide their affairs, nor with the disappoint- 
ments that we meet with in every undertaking 

The poor girl, full of the examples of the tender and 
the marvellous that have charmed her in her reading, is 
astonished not to meet in the world real persons that 
are like her heroes ; she would live like those imaginary 
princesses, who in the romances are ever charming, 
ever adored, ever above all wants. How distasteful for 
her to descend from such heroic heights to the lowest 
details of housekeeping ! 

Some girls push their curiosity still further and aspire 
to decide on religious questions to which they are not 
equal. Those that have not ability enough for such 
investigations pursue others suited to their capacity. 
They ardently desire to know everything that is said 



1 8 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

and done ; be it song, item of news, or intrigue ; to 
receive letters and to read those received by others. 
They are vain, and their vanity makes them talkative ; 
they are frivolous, and their frivolity prevents the reflec- 
tions that would often keep them silent. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF AN EDUCATION. 19 



CHAPTER III. 

THE FOUNDATIONS OF AN EDUCATION. 

In remedying all these evils it would be a great 
advantage to be able to begin the education of girls 
from their tenderest infancy. That first period of life 
which is left to the care of foolish, and sometimes 
vicious women, is the very one in which the deepest 
impressions are made, and which consequently has a 
great bearing on the whole of after-life. 

Before children know how to speak plainly they may 
be prepared for instruction. Some may think I go too 
far ; but only consider what the child that cannot yet 
talk is doing. It is learning a language which it will 
soon speak more accurately than the learned can speak 
the dead languages which they have studied with such 
pains at a riper age. And what is it to learn a lan- 
guage ? It is not merely to store the memory with a 
great number of words ; it is, in addition to this, says 
St. Augustine, to note the peculiar meaning of each of 
these words. "The child," says he, "amid its cries and 
sports notices what object each word stands for ; this it 
does by first regarding the natural movements of the 
body that touch or point out the objects of which we 
speak, and then being struck by the frequent repetition 
of the same word to represent the same object." True, 
the formation of the brain in infancy gives a wonder- 
ful aptitude for receiving the impression of all these 



20 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

images ; but what mental concentration is required to 
distinguish them and attach each to its proper object ! 

Consider, moreover, how, even as early as this, chil- 
dren seek those who caress them and avoid those who 
restrain them, how well they know how. to cry or to be 
quiet in order to obtain what they desire, how much 
cunning and jealousy they already possess. 

"I have seen," says St. Augustine, "an infant jeal- 
ous ; though still unable to speak, it already regarded 
with pale countenance and angry eyes the child at the 
breast with it." 

As early as this, then, you may count on children's 
understanding more than people usually imagine : so 
you can give them, by means of words aided by tones 
and gestures, an inclination for the society of the up- 
right and virtuous persons with whom they may be 
thrown rather than that of other injudicious ones whom 
they might be in danger of loving : so also you can 
depict to them with horror, by means of different ex- 
pressions of your countenance, and the tone of your 
voice, persons whom they have seen in anger or any 
other excess ; and select the pleasantest tones and most 
serene countenance to set before them with admiration 
whatever they have seen that is discreet and modest. 

I do not present these small things as great ones, but 
nevertheless these early inclinations are beginnings that 
should not be neglected, and this method of prepossess- 
ing children in advance has consequences that, though 
scarcely perceptible, make education easier. 

If any one still doubts the power of these first pre- 
possessions of infancy over men, he has only to con- 
sider how vivid and tender the memories of what one 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF AN EDUCATION. 21 

has loved in childhood remain to an advanced age. If, 
instead of arousing in children foolish fears of spectres 
and ghosts which only weaken their still tender brains 
by undue excitement ; if, instead of leaving them to 
follow every fancy of their nurses as to what they shall 
love or shun, you would endeavor always to give them 
a pleasant idea of what is good and a frightful idea of 
what is bad, this prepossession would materially facili- 
tate the practice of all the virtues in after life. On the 
contrary, they are made afraid of a priest clothed in 
black, death is only mentioned to them to frighten them, 
and they are told that the dead return by night in hid- 
eous form : all this only tends to make the spirit weak 
and cowardly and to preoccupy it to the exclusion of 
better things. 

The most important point during the first years of 
childhood is to establish the child's health, to try to 
give it a gentle disposition by means of well-chosen 
food and the regulations of a simple life. A child's 
meals should be so ordered that they will always come 
at about the same hour, and as often as its needs re- 
quire ; that nothing is eaten between meals, as that 
would overcharge the stomach while digestion is going 
on ; that nothing highly seasoned is eaten, for that 
would excite an appetite beyond the child's needs and 
would give it a distaste for more healthful food ; and 
finally, that too many articles are not served, for a vari- 
ety of dishes, following one after another, keeps up the 
appetite after the real need of food is at an end. 

The important points still left are to allow the organs 
to strengthen by not pressing instruction, to avoid all 
that can fire the passions, and gently to accustom the 



22 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

child to being deprived of the things for which it has 
shown too much ardor, so that it may never hope to ob- 
tain its desires. 

However unfavorable the natural disposition of chil- 
dren may be, it is possible by such mea'ns to make them 
docile, patient, steady, cheerful, and tranquil ; if, on the 
contrary, this first period is neglected, they become pas- 
sionate and restless for life, their blood is inflamed, the 
still tender body and the soul which as yet has no bent 
towards any particular object, yield readily to evil ; thus 
a kind of second original sin is created within them, 
which is the source of a thousand evils when they are 
older. 

From the time when they reach a later age at which 
their reason is fully developed, every word spoken to 
them should help to make them love virtue and to in- 
spire in them a contempt for all double-dealing. There- 
fore you should never use any pretence in order to con- 
sole them or to persuade them to your wishes ; by such 
conduct you would teach them deceit, which they would 
never forget : they should be led, as far as possible, 
by reason. 

But let us examine more closely the condition of 
children, in order that we may consider more in detail 
what is best for them. The substance of their brains is 
soft, and hardening every day ; as for their minds, they 
know nothing ; everything is novel to them. This soft- 
ness of the brain causes everything to be easily im- 
pressed thereon, and the surprise of novelty makes them 
ready to admire and very inquisitive. It is also true 
that this moisture and softness of the brain, accom- 
panied as it is by great heat, causes ready and constant 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF AN EDUCATION. 23 

motion. Hence ensues the restlessness of children, who 
can never let their minds rest on a particular object or 
their bodies in a particular spot. 

On the other hand, since children as yet know noth- 
ing to think about or to occupy themselves with, they 
observe everything, but speak little, unless they have 
been encouraged to talk a great deal, and this point 
must be well guarded. Often the pleasure we would 
derive from pretty children is a source of injury to them ; 
they form the habit of trying everything that comes into 
their heads and of speaking on subjects of which as yet 
they have no definite knowledge : this results in a life- 
long habit of judging hastily and of talking about 
subjects on which they have no clear ideas — which 
produces a very objectionable cast of mind. 

The pleasure you would derive from children has still 
another pernicious effect : they perceive that you regard 
them with complacence, that you notice all they do and 
enjoy listening to them; hence they come to believe 
that the world will always be taken up with them. 

At this age when one is applauded and has never yet 
met with contradiction, there arise delusive hopes which 
prepare infinite disappointment for after life. I have 
seen children who thought they were being talked about 
whenever there was any private conversation, because 
they had often observed this to be the case.; they imag- 
ined themselves to have no characteristics that were not 
extraordinary and admirable. Therefore it is impor- 
tant, in caring for children, not to let them see that you 
are giving them much thought. Make it appear that 
you are attentive to their behavior from affection and on 
account of their need of correction, not from admiration 



24 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

of their intelligence. Be content to form their charac- 
ters little by little as occasions naturally come up. Even 
when you could advance a child's intelligence greatly 
without forcing it, you ought to hesitate to do so ; for 
the dangers of vanity and presumption always outweigh 
the benefits of that premature development which at- 
tracts so much attention. 

You should content yourself with following and assist- 
ing nature. Children know but little, so they should 
not be urged to talk ; but as they are ignorant of many 
things, they have many questions to ask, so they ask 
many. It is enough to reply to these questions with 
precision, and sometimes to add some simple illustra- 
tions in order to render the explanations you give them 
clearer. If they express an opinion on a subject with 
which they are not thoroughly familiar, you should em- 
barrass them by some novel question, in order to make 
them conscious of their error without rudely abashing 
them. 

At the same time they should be made to understand, 
not by vague words of praise, but by some tangible evi- 
dence of approbation, that they are more highly esteemed 
when they hesitate and ask about that of which they are 
ignorant than when they decide most wisely. This is 
the way to instill into them, along with politeness, true 
modesty and a contempt for the arguments so common 
among ignorant young persons. 

As soon as children's reason seems somewhat devel- 
oped, their own experience should be used to fortify 
them against presumption. " You see," you may say, 
" how much more reasonable you are now than you were 
a year ago ; in another year you will understand things 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF AN EDUCATION. 25 

that to-day you are incapable of comprehending. If a 
year ago you had wished to decide upon matters with 
which you are now familiar but of which you were then 
ignorant, you would have decided badly. You would 
have been very wrong in pretending to comprehend 
what was beyond your capacity. It is the same way 
to-day with the things you have yet to learn : some day 
you will see how imperfect your present judgments are. 
In the meantime yield to the counsels of those who 
think as you yourself will, when you reach their age and 
experience. 

Children's curiosity is a natural bent that prepares 
the way for instruction : do not fail to avail yourself of 
it. For example, when they see a mill in the country 
and wish to know what it is, you should show them how 
the food that sustains life is prepared. When they see 
reapers, you should explain to them what the reapers 
are doing, how wheat is sown, and how it reproduces 
itself in the ground. In the city they will see shops in 
which various arts are being carried on and where dif- 
ferent kinds of merchandise are beins: sold. You oucfht 
never to be annoyed by their questions ; these are open- 
ings offered you by Nature herself to facilitate instruc- 
tion : show that you take pleasure in them. By such a 
course you will insensibly teach children how everv- 
thing that men use and that commerce turns upon, is 
manufactured. Gradually, without special study, they 
will learn the right way to make everything that is 
used by them and the fair price of each article, which is 
the true basis of economy. Such knowledge, which 
ought not to be despised by any one, since all need to 
avoid being cheated in their expenditures, is chiefly 
necessary for girls. 



26 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

IMITATION A SOURCE OF DANGER. 

The ignorance of children, whose brains are still 
devoid of impressions and who have no fixed habits, 
makes them docile and inclined to imitate everything 
they see. For this reason it is a cardinal point to offer 
them good models only. None but those whose example 
may be useful for them to follow ought to be allowed to 
come in contact with them ; but as, in spite of every 
precaution you may take, it is impossible to keep them 
from seeing some objectionable things, their attention 
must be called, at an early period, to the folly of such 
vicious and silly persons as have no reputations to be 
guarded. They must be shown how much and how 
deservedly despised and how miserable are those who 
give themselves up to their passions and fail to cultivate 
reason. 

Thus without giving children a habit of sneering, you 
may form their tastes and make them sensible of the 
charms of real good behavior. 

You must not even refrain from warning them in 
general terms against particular defects, although you 
may fear to open their eyes by such a course to the 
weaknesses of those whom they ought to respect ; for 
besides that it is neither right nor within the bounds of 
possibility to keep them in ignorance of the true stand- 
ards of conduct, the surest means of holding them to 



IMITATION A SOURCE OF DANGER. 2*] 

their duty is to teach them that the defects of others 
must be borne with, that we should not even judge 
of these too hastily, that they often appear greater than 
they really are, that they are atoned for by good quali- 
ties, and that, as there is nothing perfect on the earth, 
we ought to admire that which has the least imperfec- 
tions ; in short, although such instructions should be 
reserved for an extremity, nevertheless true principles 
must be given to children, and they must be prevented 
from imitating all the evil that meets their eyes. 

They must be kept also from mimicking ridiculous 
persons ; for such scornful and theatrical deportment 
contains an element that is low and contrary to good 
feeling. Its assumption by children is to be dreaded, 
because the warmth of their imaginations and the sup- 
pleness of their bodies, in connection with their high 
spirits, enables them to take with ease all sorts of atti- 
tudes to depict whatever they see that is laughable. 

This inclination to imitate, which is a characteristic 
of children, produces an infinite number of evils when 
they are left to the charge of persons destitute of virtue 
that do not restrain themselves to any great degree in 
their presence. God, however, gave children this pro- 
pensity to make them incline readily to whatever is set 
before them for their good. Often you need only, with- 
out saying a word, to show them in another, what you 
wish them to do. 



28 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 



CHAPTER V. . 

INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 

I even believe that indirect instructions, which are 
not so wearisome as lessons and remonstrances, are often 
all that you need make use of, to call the attention of 
children to the examples presented them. 

One person might occasionally ask another in their 
presence, "Why do you do this ? " and the other might 
reply, "I do it for such and such a reason." For ex- 
ample, " Why did you confess your fault ? " — " Because 
I would have committed a still greater one in disowning 
it, like a coward, by a falsehood, and because nothing is 
nobler than to say frankly, I am wrong." After this, 
the first person may praise the one that has thus accused 
himself ; but all this must be done without affectation, 
for children are much more penetrating than one would 
imagine, and from the moment that they find any arti- 
fice in those who control them, they lose the simplicity 
and confidence which are natural to them. 

We have observed that children's brains are perfectly 
moist and warm, which causes continual movement on 
their part. This softness of the brain renders it very 
impressible, and the images made upon it by all objects 
of sense very vivid : therefore you must hasten to make 
inscriptions on the brain while characters are readily 
traced there. But you must choose carefully the images 
to be engraven on it ; for a storehouse so limited and 



INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 29 

valuable should be filled only with exquisite things ; it 
must be kept in mind that nothing should be deposited 
in the mind in childhood except what you would have 
remain there throughout the whole of life. The first 
images graven on the brain while it is yet soft, and has 
nothing stamped upon it, are the most lasting. Besides, 
they strengthen as age hardens the brain ; thus they 
become ineffaceable ; hence it is that when we are old, 
we distinctly recall the things of youth, though so far 
away, and on the other hand remember less of what we 
have seen at a more advanced age, because the impres- 
sions of the latter were made on the brain when it was 
already hardened and covered with other images. 

When we are made to listen to such reasoning we find 
difficulty in giving it credence. Nevertheless, it is true 
that we reason in the same way ourselves without notic- 
ing it. Do we not say every day, " I have taken my 
bent, I am too old to change, I was brought up after this 
fashion " ? Besides, do we not feel a peculiar pleasure t 
in recalling the images of youth ? Are not our strongest 
proclivities those that are formed at this period of life ? 
Does not all this prove that the first habits are the 
strongest ? Though infancy is the fit time for stamping 
images on the brain, it must be acknowledged that it is 
a time less suited to reasoning. That humidity of the 
brain which makes impressions easy, being accompanied 
by great heat, produces an agitation that prevents all 
protracted application. 

A child's brain is like a lighted candle in a place 
exposed to the wind : its flame constantly flickers. A 
child asks you a question ; and before you reply, its 
eyes are raised to the ceiling. It is counting the 



30 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

figures depicted there, or the panes of glass in the win- 
dows ; if you try to call its attention back to the first 
object, you torture it as if you kept it in prison. There- 
fore the organs of children should be very cautiously 
dealt with while you are waiting for them to strengthen ; 
reply promptly to their questions and allow them to 
put others at their pleasure. Only keep up their curi- 
osity and store their memories with a mass of good 
materials : the time will come when these will arrange 
themselves, and when, the brain having more consis- 
tency, the children will reason consecutively : in the 
meantime confine yourself to correcting their faulty 
reasoning, and making them realize not hastily, but as 
they give you openings, what it is to draw an inference. 

Let children play then, and combine instruction with 
their sports, so that Wisdom may show herself to them 
only in glimpses and with a smiling countenance ; be care- 
ful not to weary them by an unwise strictness. If chil- 
dren form a doleful and sombre idea of virtue, if liberty 
and lack of restraint appear to them in attractive guise, 
all is lost, your labor will be in vain. Never let them be 
pleased with petty minds or with persons that lack self- 
control. We grow to like the behavior and opinions of 
those we are fond of; the pleasure we first enjoy with 
those that are not virtuous gradually leads us to esteem 
even their contemptible qualities. 

To make good persons attractive to children, point 
out their amiable and advantageous traits, their sin- 
cerity, their modesty, their disinterestedness, their fidel- 
ity, their discretion, but above all their piety, which is 
the source of all the rest. 

If one of these has any offensive characteristics, say, 



INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 3 I 

" Piety is not the cause of these defects ; when it is per- 
fect, it removes or at least softens them." After all, 
you need not be obstinately bent on making children 
fond of those pious persons whose exterior is repulsive. 

However well you may keep guard over yourself 
to prevent them from seeing anything but good in 
you, do not expect children never to find out your im- 
perfections ; often they will observe even your most 
trifling errors. St. Augustine tells us that even from 
infancy he had remarked the vanity of his teachers with 
regard to their learning. What is better and more 
urgent for you to do, is to recognize your defects as 
clearly as the child sees them, and to keep yourself 
informed of them by sincere friends. Usually those 
who have charge of children pardon nothing in them, 
but everything in themselves. This excites a spirit of 
criticism and spite in the children to such a degree that 
when they see an error committed by the one who has 
control of them, they are delighted and seek only to 
despise her. 

Avoid this evil consequence : do not hesitate to speak 
before children of the defects visible now in you, and 
the faults you have overcome ; if you find them capable 
of appreciating reason on the subject, tell them that you 
are willing to set them the example of correcting their 
defects by correcting your own. By this means you will 
derive from your very imperfections something to instruct 
and benefit them, something to encourage them to self- 
improvement ; you will also prevent the contempt and 
disgust that your defects might give them for yourself. 

At the same time you must seek every means of mak- 
k, ing your requirements agreeable to children. Have you 



32 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

any trying one to propose ? explain to them that the 
pain will soon be followed by pleasure, always show 
them the utility of the things you teach them, make 
them understand the use of these in connection with the 
commerce of the world and the duties of different ranks. 
Without this knowledge, study will seem to them mere 
abstract toil, fruitless and painful. " What avails it," 
they will say to each other, " to learn things that people 
never mention in conversation, and that have no con- 
nection with all that one has to do ? " You must, there- 
fore, give them a reason for all your instructions. " My 
object is," you may tell them, "to fit you to perform 
well your future tasks, to form your judgments, and to 
accustom you to reasoning correctly about all the affairs 
of life." You should ever point them forward to some 
substantial and desirable end, the thought of which may 
sustain them in their toil ; and never claim to keep them 
in subjection by a harsh and absolute authority. 

In proportion to the development of their reason, you 
should also discuss with them more and more what is 
required in their education ; not in order to follow out 
all their ideas, but to take advantage of what they reveal 
about their true condition, to test their discernment, and 
to predispose them in favor of what you wish them 
to do. 

Never, except in the last extremity, assume an austere 
and imperious air, which frightens children. This often 
proceeds from affectation and pedantry in those that 
have charge of them ; for children, as a rule, are only 
too timid and bashful. You will close their hearts, and 
- deprive them of confidence, without which no good re- 
sult is to be hoped for from education. Make yourself 



INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 33 

beloved by them, that they may be at ease with you and 
may not fear to let you perceive their defects. In order 
to succeed in this, be indulgent to those who do not dis- 
guise their true natures in your presence, appear neither 
surprised nor irritated at their evil inclinations; on the 
contrary, deal compassionately with their weaknesses. 
Sometimes this inconvenience will follow, that they will 
be less restrained by fear, but, everything considered, 
confidence and sincerity are more advantageous than 
rigorous authority. 

Besides, if confidence and persuasion are not power- 
ful enough, authority will not fail to find its place ; but 
you should always begin with a frank behavior, — 
cheerful and easy, without undue familiarity, — which 
will give you the opportunity of seeing children in their 
natural state and of becoming thoroughly acquainted 
with them. 

Finally, even if you should reduce them by authority 
to the observance of all your regulations, you would not 
attain your end ; the only result would be burdensome 
formalities and perhaps hypocrisy. You would give 
them a distaste for virtue when to inspire a love for it 
should be your only object. 

If the wisest of men has constantly recommended to 
parents to keep the rod always raised over children, and 
said that a father that plays with his son shall eventu- 
ally weep over him, he does not meanjto find fault with 
a gentle and patient training. He condemns only those 
weak and inconsiderate parents who humor the passions 
of their children and seek only to entertain themselves 
with them in their infancy, even to the extent of allow- 
ing them to indulge in every kind of excess. 



34 TH E EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

From these considerations it must be concluded that 
parents ought always to preserve the authority for cor- 
rection, for there are some dispositions that must be 
restrained by fear ; but — I repeat it — this motive 
should be employed only when no other .will avail. 

Children, who as yet act only as fancy dictates and 
who confound in their minds things that are presented 
to them in connection with each other, hate study and 
virtue because of a preconceived aversion to the indi- 
vidual that speaks to them of these subjects. Hence 
proceeds that sombre and repellent idea of piety which 
lasts throughout life : frequently this is all that remains 
of a severe education. Often you should tolerate things 
that need correction, and await the moment when the 
child's mind shall be disposed to profit by the correc- 
tion. Never reprove a child in its first excitement, nor 
in yours. If you chide in yours, the child will see that 
you are actuated by temper and hastiness and not by 
reason and affection ; you will lose your authority irre- 
trievably. If you reprove the child in its first excite- 
ment, its mind will not be calm enough to confess its 
fault, to subdue its passion, and to realize the value of 
your advice ; you will even expose the child to the 
danger of losing the respect due you. Show always 
that you are master of yourself ; nothing will better 
prove this than your patience. Watch every moment 
for several days, if necessary, in order to time a correc- 
tion well. Do not speak of a defect to a child without 
adding some method of overcoming it that may encour- 
age the attempt, for the mortification and discourage- 
ment that cold correction produces must be avoided. If 
you find a child somewhat reasonable, I think you should 



INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 35 

insensibly lead it to ask to be told of its defects : this is 
the way to point these out without wounding the child. 
You should never even mention several faults at the 
same time. 

We must take into consideration that children as yet 
have weak intellects ; that their time of life renders 
them susceptible only to pleasure ; and often an exact- 
ness and a seriousness are demanded of them of which 
those who require these would be incapable. A danger- 
ous impression of weariness and gloom is made upon 
their dispositions by speaking to them constantly of 
words and things that they do not understand, — no 
liberty, no enjoyment ; always lessons, silence, con- 
strained attitudes, correction, and threats. 

The ancients understood the matter far better. It 
was through the pleasure of poetry and music that the 
chief branches of knowledge, the maxims of virtue, and 
refinement of behavior were introduced among the 
Hebrews, the Egyptians, and the Greeks. Persons that 
are not well read will find difficulty in believing this, so 
far remote is it from our custom ; yet he who knows 
anything of history has no room to doubt that such was 
the common practice for many centuries. Let us, at 
least, go back in ours to uniting the agreeable with the 
useful as far as possible. 

But, although you cannot expect to dispense wholly 
with the use of fear for the generality of children, 
whose natural disposition is unyielding and intractable, 
it must not be resorted to until all other remedies have 
been patiently tried. Children should also be made to 
comprehend clearly the full extent of your requirements, 
and on what conditions you will be satisfied with them ; 



36 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

for cheerfulness and confidence must characterize their 
habitual frame of mind, or their spirit will be crushed 
and their courage lessened. If they are quick, they will 
be irritated ; if they are slow, they will be made stupid. 
Fear is like the violent remedies that are employed in 
critical maladies ; these cleanse the system, but impair 
the constitution, and wear out the organs : a mind con- 
trolled by fear is always weaker on that account. 

Besides, although it may not be best to be ever threat- 
ening without punishing, for fear of making one's threats 
contemptible, it is, nevertheless, well to punish even less 
than you threaten. As to the punishment, the pain 
should be as light as possible, but accompanied by every 
circumstance that can provoke the child to shame and 
remorse. For example, speak of all you have done to 
avoid this extremity ; seem to be distressed thereat, talk 
with others, before the child, of the misfortune of those 
that so far lack reason and character as to bring punish- 
ment on themselves ; withdraw the ordinary tokens of 
affection until you see that consolation is needed ; make 
the punishment public or private according as you think 
it will be more useful to the child to cause it great 
shame, or to show it that you spare it that disgrace : 
reserve this public shame as a last resort ; avail your- 
self, at times, of some discreet person that may console 
the child, say to it what at that time you ought not 
yourself to say, heal its false shame, and give it a dispo- 
sition to return to you, and to whom the child in its 
emotion can open its heart more freely than it would 
dare to do before you. But, above all, never seem to 
demand any but necessary submissions from a child ; 
try to make such requirements that the child will pass 



INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 37 

judgment on itself, that it will carry them out with a 
good grace, and that for you shall remain only the task 
of softening the pain already accepted. Each one ought 
to make use of these general rules according to individ- 
ual needs ; human beings, and especially children, are 
not always consistent : what is wholesome to-day is dan- 
gerous to-morrow ; a constantly uniform management 
cannot be advisable. 

The fewer formal lessons you can give, the better ; an 
infinite amount of instruction more profitable than les- 
sons proper may be introduced into Cheerful conversa- 
tions. I have known several children that learned to 
read with the greatest facility : all that is necessary is 
to tell them pleasing tales taken from books in their 
presence and to teach them the letters gradually ; they 
will then desire the ability to go themselves to the 
source from which they derived pleasure. 

Two things will spoil everything : these are teaching 
them to read in Latin first, which takes away all the pleas- 
ure of reading, and trying to give them the habit of read- 
ing with a forced and ridiculous exaggeration of emphasis ; 
a well-bound book, even gilt-edged, with beautiful pic- 
tures and clear print, should be provided. Everything 
that delights the fancy facilitates study ; you must try 
to select a book full of short and marvellous stories. 

After this is done, give yourself no trouble about the 
child's learning to read ; do not even weary it by making 
it read too carefully; leave it to pronounce naturally, as it 
talks ; other tones are always unpleasant and savor of 
college declamation. When the tongue becomes loos- 
ened, the chest stronger, and the habit of reading 
greater, the child will read without difficulty, with more 
grace and more distinctness. 



38 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

The method of teaching writing should be almost 
identical. When children already know how to read 
a little, you can give them the letters to form as an 
amusement, and if there are several of them together, 
you should stir up emulation in the matter. Children 
resort of their own accord to drawing figures upon 
paper ; if you assist this inclination ever so little, with- 
out undue constraint, they will form the letters in sport 
and gradually will accustom themselves to writing. You 
can even arouse this inclination in them by promising 
them some recompense that will be to their taste and 
involve no dangerous consequences. " Write a letter to 
me," you may say ; "write such and such a thing to your 
brother or your cousin " : all this will give pleasure to a 
child, if no gloomy idea of a regular lesson disturb it. 
"Free curiosity," says St. Augustine, from his own 
experience, "awakens the intelligence of children much 
more than a rule and necessity imposed by fear." 

Notice one great defect in education as usually con- 
ducted : all the pleasure is placed on one side, all the 
irksomeness on the other, — all the tediousness in study, 
all the enjoyment in amusements. What can a child 
do but endure this rule with impatience and rush eagerly 
after sports. 

Let us, then, try to change this arrangement ; let us 
make study agreeable, let us conceal it under the guise 
of liberty and pleasure, let us allow children to break in 
upon their studies sometimes with brief sallies of amuse- 
ment. They need these distractions to refresh their 
minds. 

Let us suffer their glances to wander a little ; let us, 
even, allow them from time to time some sport or 



INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 39 

digression in order that their minds may be relaxed: 
then lead them gently to the desired end. 

Too exact a regularity in requiring uninterrupted 
study from them, injures children very greatly: often 
those that have control of them affect this regularity 
because it is more convenient to themselves than to be 
bound always to take advantage of every moment. At 
the same time, let us keep from the diversions of chil- 
dren all that can excite their passions unduly; but all 
that can refresh the mind, afford an agreeable variety, 
satisfy the curiosity about useful matters, or exercise 
the body in fitting arts, should be employed in their rec- 
reations, -tr The sports they like best are those in which 
the body is in motion. They are content if they can 
only change their place often : a ball or a shuttlecock is 
enough. So there need be no trouble about their 
amusements : they will find a plenty for themselves: it 
is sufficient to allow them to do so ; to watch their 
sports with a cheerful countenance and to moderate 
these when they grow too violent. -It is well also to 
make children as sensible as possible of the pleasures 
that the mind can give ; such as conversations, stories, 
history, and many games of skill that contain some 
instruction. All these will be of use in their own time, 
but the taste for them in children must not be forced ; 
you should only offer them some suggestions : after a 
while their bodies will be less disposed to restlessness 
and their minds more active. The pains that should be 
taken to season serious occupations with pleasure will 
aid greatly in lessening the ardor of youth for dangerous 
diversions. Constraint and ennui are the cause of so 
much impatience for entertainment. If a girl were less 



40 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

wearied by the society of her mother, she would not 
have such a desire to escape from her to seek less 
virtuous companions. 

In the choice of diversions all doubtful companion- 
ships should be avoided ; no boys should be allowed 
with girls, nor even any girls whose dispositions are not 
steady and safe. Games that excite or divert the pas- 
sions too much, or that accustom to a physical activity 
unbecoming in girls, frequent going from home and con- 
versations that give a desire to go frequently, should 
be avoided. | While we are yet unspoiled by any great 
pleasure, and have never experienced any ardent passion, 
we easily find enjoyment : health and innocence are its 
true sources ; but those who have the misfortune to be 
accustomed to violent delights, lose their taste for simple 
pleasures and wear themselves out in a restless search 
after happiness. The taste for amusements may be 
vitiated in the same way as that for food : a person may 
become so accustomed to highly flavored dishes that 
ordinary, simply seasoned food will seem tasteless and 
insipid. Dread, then, those great convulsions of the soul 
that prepare the way for ennui and dissatisfaction, 
especially and to a greater degree are they to be 
dreaded for children, who offer less resistance to their 
emotions, and like to be always thrilled. Keep up in 
them a taste for simple things, so that there may be 
required neither great preparation of meats to furnish 
them sustenance, nor of amusements to entertain them.^ 
Moderation always affords sufficient appetite without 
needing to rouse it by fancy dishes, which lead to 
intemperance. "Temperance," says one of the ancients, 
"is the best handmaid of pleasure." With this temper- 



INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 41 

ance, which always produces health of body and soul, 
one is constantly in the enjoyment of a calm and gentle 
happiness ; one has no need of contrivances, or plays, or 
expenditure in order to be happy ; a little game invented, 
a book read, a work undertaken, a walk, or an innocent 
conversation refreshing after labor, cause purer delight 
than the most charming music. 

Simple pleasures, it is true, are less vivid and keen ; 
those of another kind elevate the spirit by touching the 
springs of the passions, but these wear better, they give 
an equable and enduring satisfaction without any hurt- 
ful consequences : they are always beneficent, while 
other pleasures are like adulterated wines, which at first 
taste better than the unmixed, but change, and injure 
the health. The constitution of the soul, as well as the 
taste, may be injured by the search after such lively 
and piquant pleasures. All that we can do for the 
children in our charge is to accustom them to a simple 
way of living by strengthening the habit thereof for as 
long a period as possible, by prepossessing them with a 
dread of the disadvantages attached to other kinds of 
pleasure, and by not leaving them to themselves as is 
usually done, at the very age when the passions begin 
to make themselves felt, and when consequently they 
most need to be restrained. 

It must be acknowledged that of all educational diffi- 
culties, none is comparable to the difficulty of training 
children that lack sensibility. Lively and sensitive 
natures are capable of frightful errors : passion and pre- 
sumption carry them away ; but they also possess great 
resources and often return from their most distant wan- 
derings. Instruction in them is a hidden germ that 



42 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

grows and sometimes bears fruit when experience comes 
to the aid of reason and the passions cool. At least, 
you know how to attract their attention and rouse 
their curiosity ; their natures afford a means of interest- 
ing them in your teachings and of piquing them, while 
on indolent dispositions you have no hold. All the 
thoughts of the latter run on diversions ; they are never 
where they ought to be ; even correction does not touch 
them to the quick, and though they listen to every- 
thing, they are affected by nothing. This indolence 
makes a child negligent and gives it a distaste for all 
exertion. It is in such a case that the best education is 
in danger of proving a failure, unless one is careful to 
anticipate the evil from earliest infancy. Many persons 
who reason superficially conclude from this poor success 
that nature is the only factor in producing men of 
ability, and that education can accomplish nothing in 
that respect ; instead of which we need only infer that 
there are some dispositions that are like unfruitful soils, 
for which cultivation does little. It is still worse when 
an education of such difficulty is thwarted, or neglected, 
or badly managed in the beginning. 

It must further be observed that there are some dis- 
positions among children that are very deceptive. They 
seem lovely at first because the charms of early child- 
hood have a glamour that extends over everything ; an 
indescribable tenderness and loveliness attend upon this 
time of life that prevent a close examination of the indi- 
vidual traits it presents. Whatever intelligence is met 
with surprises us because it is unexpected at that age. 
All faults of judgment are tolerated and have the charm 
of ingenuousness ; a certain physical activity that never 



INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 43 

fails to appear in childhood is taken for liveliness of 
mind. Hence it is that childhood seems to promise so 
much and gives so little. Many a one has been cele- 
brated for his wit at the age of five and has fallen into 
obscurity and contempt in proportion to his growth. 
Of all the qualities to be found in children there is only 
one that can be relied on, that is good reasoning power ; 
this will always increase with their growth if it be prop- 
erly cultivated. The charms of childhood disappear, 
its vivacity dies out, and even its tenderness of heart is 
often lost, because the influence of the passions and 
intercourse with politic persons gradually harden young 
people that mingle with the world. Seek, therefore, to 
discover, beneath the graces of childhood, if the disposi- 
tion you have the management of, be lacking in curiosity 
and but little moved by noble emulation. In such a 
case it is hard for all those engaged in the training not 
to become discouraged at once with a labor so fruitless 
and so trying. All the springs of a child's being should 
be promptly tried in order to rouse it from this lethargy. 
If you foresee this difficulty, do not insist at first on 
continuous instruction ; take care not to overload the 
memory, for that shocks and stupefies the brain ; do not 
weary the child with burdensome regulations ; entertain 
it : when it falls into the opposite extreme from pre- 
sumption, do not fear to point out its powers ; be con- 
tent with little ; notice such a child's slightest success ; 
show it how needlessly it has feared not being able to 
succeed in things that it does well ; and set emulation 
to work. 

Jealousy is more violent in children than one would 
think. They are sometimes seen to languish and waste 



44 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

away with a secret grief, because others are more be- 
loved and caressed than they. Making them suffer this 
torment is a cruelty too frequent among mothers ; but 
you should know how to use it, in a pressing necessity, 
as a remedy for indolence. Lay before the child the 
fact that you are training other children that do but 
little better than itself. Any example not proportionate 
to its weakness will end by discouraging. From time 
to time give a child little victories over those of whom 
it is jealous. If you can, induce it to laugh freely with 
you over its own timidity ; call attention to persons as 
timid as itself who finally overcame their natural dispo- 
sition. Teach children by indirect instruction on occa- 
sions offered by others that timidity and idleness stifle 
the mind ; that indolent and careless persons, whatever 
talent they may possess, weaken their intellects and 
degrade themselves ; but be very careful not to give 
these instructions in an austere and impatient tone, for 
nothing thrusts a weak and timid child back within it- 
self so much as harshness. On the contrary, in such a 
case, redouble your efforts to flavor the labor from which 
you cannot save the child with facilities and pleasures 
adapted to its disposition ; perhaps it may even be nec- 
essary from time to time to stir up such a child by con- 
tempt and reproaches. You ought not to do this your- 
self ; some inferior person, such as another child, should 
do it, seemingly without your knowledge. 

St. Augustine tells us that a reproach addressed to 
St. Monica, his mother, by a servant, in her childhood 
so impressed her as to correct a bad habit of drinking 
wine unmixed with water, which the vehemence and 
severity of her governess had not been able to prevent 



INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 45 

her from indulging. In short, we must try to rouse 
sensibility in the minds of children of this class as we 
try to rouse it in the body in some diseases. They 
should be permitted to pursue whatever can overcome 
their lack of relish, and some fancies should be tolerated 
in them even at the expense of your rules, provided these 
fancies do not run to a dangerous excess. To rouse 
taste in those who possess none is much more difficult 
than to direct the taste of those that only as yet lack 
the right kind. 

There is another kind of sensibility still more difficult 
and more important to give to children ; this is suscep- 
tibility to affection. As soon as a child is capable of 
love, there is no longer anything to be considered but 
how to turn its heart towards those persons that will be 
of benefit to it. Affection will lead such a child to 
nearly everything you desire of it ; you have a sure 
bond to draw it to the good, if you only know how to 
use the advantage : nothing else remains to be feared 
except excess in affection or a bad selection of an object. 
But there are some children that are by nature politic, 
secretive, and indifferent, so that they secretly connect 
everything with self. They deceive their parents whom 
tenderness makes credulous, they pretend to love them, 
and study their inclinations in order to conform them- 
selves thereto. These children appear more docile than 
others of the same age, who act according to their feel- 
ings without disguise. Their submissiveness, which 
conceals a rugged will, seems like real amiability ; and 
their insincere disposition only fully displays itself when 
it is too late for it to be remedied. 

If there be any disposition among children for which 



46 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS, 

education can effect nothing, we may say that this is 
the one ; and yet it must be confessed that the number 
of these is greater than one would imagine. Parents 
cannot make up their minds to believe that their chil- 
dren have badly disposed hearts ; and when they will 
not see this themselves, no one dares undertake to con- 
vince them of it, and the evil increases all the time. 
The best remedy would be to put children, from the 
very first, at perfect liberty to show their inclinations. 

It is necessary always to understand them thoroughly 
before correcting them. They are naturally simple and 
open ; but if you restrain them or set them the example 
of concealment, they return no more to that first sim- 
plicity. God alone, indeed, bestows tenderness and 
kindness of heart : we can only try to excite them by 
generous examples, by principles of honor and disinter- 
estedness, and by a contempt for those who love them- 
selves too much. At an early age, before they have 
lost the first simplicity of the more spontaneous emo- 
tions, you should try to get children to taste the pleasure 
of a cordial and reciprocal affection. Nothing will aid 
in this so much as surrounding them at first with per- 
sons that never manifest any trait that is harsh, false, 
low, or selfish. It would be better to allow persons 
around them that have other defects but are free from 
these. Children should also be praised for all to which 
affection incites them, provided the affection be not too 
misplaced or too ardent. Their parents should seem, 
also, full of sincere love for them ; for children often 
learn, from their parents themselves, to love nothing. 
Finally, I would have you suppress before them with 
your friends all superfluous compliments, all feigned 



INDIRECT INSTRUCTION. 47 

demonstrations of affection, and all deceitful caresses, 
by which you would teach them to repay those to whom 
they owe love with vain semblances of affection. 

The opposite failing to the one we have just been 
describing is much more frequent among girls ; that is, 
becoming excited about the most indifferent matters. 
They cannot see two persons at variance without taking 
sides in their hearts with one against the other. They 
are entirely filled with groundless likes and dislikes ; 
they perceive no defect in one whom they esteem and 
no good quality in one whom they despise. They 
should not be opposed in this at first, for contradiction 
strengthens these fancies, but little by little, a young 
person should be led to realize that you see more clearly 
than she herself, all the good there is in the one she 
loves and all the evil there is in the one that is offensive 
to her. At the same time take care to make her feel 
on occasion the disadvantage of the defects found in the 
person that charms her, and the advantage of the useful 
qualities met with in the one that displeases her. Do 
not urge the matter ; you will find that she will recover 
of her own accord. After this, direct her attention to 
the most unreasonable circumstances of her past infatu- 
ations, tell her kindly that she will regard those of which 
she is not yet cured in the same light when they are 
over. Describe to her similar errors into which you fell 
at her age. Above all, show her, as clearly as you can, 
the great intermixture of good and evil to be found in 
all that one can love or hate, in order to abate the ardor 
of her likes and dislikes. 

Never promise children ornaments or dainties as 
rewards ; to do so produces two evils : first, that of 



48 THE EDUCATION OF GTRLS. 

inspiring them with esteem for that which they ought 
to despise ; second, that of depriving you of the power 
of establishing other rewards that would assist you in 
your labors. Beware of threatening children in order 
to make them study, or of fettering them by any fixed 
regulations. You should make as few rules as possible ; 
and when you cannot avoid laying down one, you should 
pass it off pleasantly without giving it the name of a 
rule, always showing some adequate reason for doing a 
thing at one time and place rather than at another. 

If you never praise children when they do well, you 
run the risk of discouraging them. Though it may be 
that praises are to be feared as a source of vanity, you 
should try to use them so as to animate children without 
intoxicating them. We see that St. Paul often employs 
praise to encourage the weak, and to make correction 
pass off more pleasantly. The Fathers of the Church 
used it in the same way. Of course, to make it useful, 
it must be tempered in such a manner as to deprive it 
of exaggeration and flattery, and at the same time every 
thing good must be referred to God as its source. 
Children may also be rewarded by innocent games 
involving some ingenuity, by walks in which conversa- 
tion need not be fruitless, and by little gifts that may 
be used as prizes ; such as pictures, engravings, medals, 
maps, or fine books. 



THE USE OF STORIES FOR CHILDREN. 49 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE USE OF STORIES FOR CHILDREN. 

Children are passionately fond of amusing stories ; 
we constantly see them transported with pleasure or 
shedding tears at the recital of the adventures related to 
them : do not fail to profit by this inclination. When 
you find them disposed to listen to you, repeat to them 
some short and pretty fable, but choose some of the 
fables about animals which are innocent and ingenious : 
give them for what they are, and show their serious aim. 
As for heathen fables, a girl will be fortunate if she 
remains in ignorance of those all her life, for they are 
impure and full of impious absurdities. If you cannot 
keep a child in ignorance of them altogether, instil an 
abhorrence of them. When you have told one fable, 
wait until the child asks you to tell others ; thus leave 
it always hungry, as it were, to learn more of them. 
When curiosity has been excited, relate certain select 
stories, but in few words ; connect these together and 
put off telling the conclusion from day to day in order 
to keep the children in suspense and to make them 
impatient to know the end. Enliven your recitals by 
spirited and natural tones of voice ; make all your char- 
acters talk : children with lively imaginations will fancy 
that they see and hear them. For example, relate the 
story of Joseph ; make his brothers speak like brutes, 
Jacob like a tender and bereaved father ; let Joseph 



50 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

himself speak; let him seem to take pleasure, when ruler 
in Egypt, in concealing himself from his brothers, in 
frightening them, and then in making himself known. 
This natural presentation, added to the wonderful char- 
acter of the story, will charm a child if you have not 
overburdened it with similar recitals, if you have 
allowed it to long for them, if you have neither given 
them the appearance of study nor compelled the child 
to repeat them : such repetitions, unless children take to 
them of their own accord, are irksome to them and take 
away all the charm from stories of this kind. 

Nevertheless, it must be observed that if a child has 
some fluency of speech, it will naturally be disposed to 
repeat to those it loves the stories that have given it 
most pleasure ; but do not make this a requirement. 
You may avail yourself of some one who will be at ease 
with the child and who will seem to wish to learn the 
story from it. The child will be delighted to repeat the 
narrative. Do not seem to be listening, and allow it to 
speak without correcting mistakes. When a child be- 
comes more accustomed to narration, you may point out 
pleasantly the best way to tell a story, which is to make 
it brief, simple, and natural, by the selection of those cir- 
cumstances that best show the nature of each incident. 
If you have several children under your care, accustom 
them by degrees to acting the parts of the characters 
whose histories they have learned : let one be Abraham, 
and another Isaac. These representations will delight 
them more than games, will accustom them to think and 
talk on serious subjects with pleasure, and will impress 
these narratives ineffaceably upon their memories. 

You should try to give children more taste for sacred 



THE USE OF STORIES FOR CHILDREN. 5 1 

stories than for any others, not by telling them that 
these are more beautiful, — for perhaps they would not 
believe that, — but by making them feel it without your 
saying it. Point out to them how important, peculiar, 
and wonderful these narratives are, how full of natural 
descriptions and a noble animation. The stories of the 
Creation, of Adam's fall, of the deluge, of the calling of 
Abraham, of the offering of Isaac, of the adventures of 
Joseph upon which we have touched, and of the birth 
and flight of Moses, are not only suited to rouse the 
curiosity of children, but by showing them the origin of 
religion, they lay a foundation for it in their minds. 
One must be profoundly ignorant of the essential feature 
of religion not to see that it is altogether historical ; it 
is from a series of wonderful facts that we get its estab- 
lishment, its perpetuity, and all that ought to lead us to 
its practice and belief. It must not be imagined that a 
wish to induce persons to plunge too deep into learning 
is implied by proposing these stories ; they are short, 
varied, and suited to please the most ordinary indi- 
viduals. God, who best knows the mind of man whom 
he created, has embodied religion in these every-day 
facts which, far from overburdening the simple, help 
them to grasp and retain the mysteries. For example, 
tell a child that, in the Godhead, three equal persons 
constitute one single being ; by dint of hearing and 
repeating these phrases, it will retain them in its mern- 
o r y ; but I doubt if it will have a conception of their 
meaning. But tell it how, when Jesus Christ came up 
from the waters of the Jordan, the Father sent a voice 
from heaven saying: — " This is my beloved son in 
whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him " ; add that the 



52 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

Holy Ghost descended upon the Saviour in the form of 
a dove, and you will make the child clearly see the 
Trinity in a story never to be forgotten. Here are 
three persons that the child will always distinguish on 
account of the difference in their actions. You have 
only to teach it that all these together constitute but 
one God. This example suffices to show the utility of 
such stories : although they seem to prolong instruction, 
they really shorten it very much and avoid the dryness 
of catechisms, in which the mysteries are detached from 
the facts. Therefore we find that of old they taught by 
means of stories. The admirable way in which St. 
Augustine would have all the ignorant taught, is not a 
method introduced by that Father alone, but was the 
universal practice and theory of the Church. It con- 
sisted in showing, from the course of history, that re- 
ligion is as ancient as the world itself. Christ expected 
in the Old Testament and Christ reigning in the New, 
is the basis of Christian instruction. 

This demands a little more time and pains than the 
instructions to which most persons confine themselves ; 
but religion is really known when these incidents are 
known ; and on the other hand, when we are not ac- 
quainted with them, we have only confused ideas of 
Christ, of the Gospel, of the Church, of the necessity 
for absolute submission to her decrees, and of the lofti- 
ness of the virtues which ought to be inspired in us by 
the name Christian. The " Historical Catechism," 
printed a short time ago, which is a simple book, short 
and much more clear than ordinary catechisms, includes 
all of these stories that need be known : so none can 
say that we require too much study. Its design is the 



THE USE OF STORIES FOR CHILDREN. 53 

same as that of the Catechism of the Council of Trent, 
except that the " Council Catechism " is a little too full 
of theological terms for uneducated persons. 

Add to the stories of which I have spoken for chil- 
dren, the passage of the Red Sea and the sojourn of the 
people in the wilderness, where they ate bread that fell 
from heaven and drank water that Moses made to flow 
from a rock by striking it with his rod. Describe the 
miraculous conquest of the promised land when the 
waters of the Jordan flowed back towards their source 
and the walls of a city fell of their own accord at the 
sight of their assailants. Represent vividly the combat 
of Saul and David ; show them the latter, youthful, 
unarmed, and clothed in shepherd's garb, the conqueror 
of the proud giant Goliath. Do not forget the glory 
and wisdom of Solomon ; describe him deciding between 
the two women that disputed about a child ; but picture 
him, also, falling from the height of his wisdom and 
dishonoring himself by voluptuousness, the almost inev- 
itable consequence of too great prosperity. Describe 
the prophets speaking to the king in God's name. Tell 
of their reading the future like an open book ; and 
make them appear humble, austere, and constantly 
undergoing persecution for speaking the truth. Bring 
in at the right point the first overthrow of Jerusalem ; 
show them how the temple was burned and the holy 
city destroyed on account of the sins of the people. 
Tell the story of the captivity of Babylon, during which 
the Jews wept for their beloved Zion. Before telling of 
their return, relate in passing the thrilling adventures of 
Tobias, of Judith, of Esther, and of Daniel. It might 
not even be without profit to make children express 



54 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

themselves about the characters of these saints to find 
out which ones they like best. One might prefer 
Esther, another, Judith ; and this would excite a little 
argument between them that would impress these stories 
more forcibly upon their minds and form their judg- 
ments. Then lead the people back to Jerusalem and 
make them rebuild her ruins ; draw a smiling picture of 
her peace and happiness. 

Immediately after this portray the cruel and impious 
Antiochus who died in a hypocritical penitence ; de- 
scribe the victories of the Maccabees under this perse- 
cutor and the martyrdom of seven brothers of one 
name. Proceed to the miraculous birth of St. John ; 
speak more in detail of that of Christ, after which you 
should select from the Evangelists all the most striking 
scenes of his life : his teaching in the temple at the age 
of twelve, his baptism, his retreat into the desert, and 
his temptation ; the calling of his apostles, the multipli- 
cation of the loaves, and the conversion of the woman 
that was a sinner, who anointed the Saviour's feet with 
perfume, bathed them with her tears, and wiped them 
with her tresses. Tell them also how the Samaritan 
woman was instructed, he that was born blind healed, 
Lazarus raised from the dead, and how Christ entered 
triumphant into Jerusalem. Describe his passion, and 
picture his rising from the tomb; then call their atten- 
tion to his familiar intercourse with his disciples for 
forty days, even until they saw him ascend to heaven. 
The descent of the Holy Ghost, the stoning of St. 
Stephen, the conversion of St. Paul, the calling of the 
centurion, Cornelius, the journeys of the apostles, and 
particularly of St. Paul, are very interesting. Choose 



THE USE OF STORIES FOR CHILDREN. 55 

the most wonderful of the stories of the martyrs, and 
some general facts about the spotless life of the early 
Christians ; bring in the courage of the young virgins, 
the most astounding severities of the anchorites, the 
conversion of the emperors and the empire, the blind- 
ness of the Jews, and their terrible punishment which is 
still going on. 

All these stories, discreetly dealt out, would agreeably 
fill the lively and tender imagination of childhood with 
the whole course of religion from the creation of the 
world down to our day, and give children a lofty idea 
of its nature that could never be effaced. They would 
perceive, also, in this history, the hand of God ever 
raised to deliver the righteous and to confound the 
wicked. They would become accustomed to seeing God 
the sole agent in all things, and secretly bending to his 
purposes the creatures that seem most remote there- 
from. In these recitals there should be brought together 
all that can afford the most pleasing and magnificent 
pictures, because every means should be employed to 
lead children to find religion beautiful, attractive, and 
impressive, instead of which they ordinarily conceive of 
it as something gloomy and melancholy. 

Besides the inestimable advantage of thus teaching 
children religion, this foundation of interesting stories, 
that you lay in their memories at an early day, awakens 
their curiosity about serious matters, renders them 
capable of the pleasures of the intellect, and interests 
them in what they hear said of other stories that have 
some connection with those they are already familiar 
with. But once more, you must guard well against 
ever laying down a law about hearing or remembering 



$6 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

these stories, still less should you make them regular 
lessons ; pleasure must accomplish all. Do not press 
these stories on children, you will attain your object 
with them even in the case of ordinary minds ; the only 
point is not to burden these too heavily, and to let their 
curiosity awake gradually. But, you will say, how are 
these stories to be related to them in a lively, brief, 
natural, and agreeable way ? Where are the governesses 
that can do this ? To that I reply, that I propose such 
a plan with no other purpose than to have you try to 
select persons of talent to take charge of children, and 
to instil into them, as far as you can, this method of 
teaching : each governess will carry it out according to 
the measure of her intelligence. But, after all, however 
little talent governesses may possess, the matter will 
turn out less badly when they are trained to this simple 
and natural method. 

They may add to their narrations the sight of engrav- 
ings or pictures that present these sacred stories attrac- 
tively. Engravings will answer, and you should avail 
yourself of them for ordinary use ; but when you have 
an opportunity of showing children some good pictures, 
it must not be neglected, — for the power of color added 
to the grandeur of life-size figures will strike the imag- 
ination more forcibly. 



THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. 57 



CHAPTER VII. 

METHOD OF INSTILLING THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF 

RELIGION. 

We have remarked that the first period of childhood 
is not adapted to the exercise of reason : not that chil- 
dren do not already possess all the ideas and all the 
general principles of reason that they will have later, 
but because, for want of a knowledge of many facts, 
they cannot apply their reason, and also because the 
agitation of their brains prevents them from following 
out and connecting their thoughts. 

It is, nevertheless, necessary, without pressing them, 
to turn the first use of their reason gently towards find- 
ing out God. Persuade them to believe the truths of 
Christianity without giving them any grounds for doubt. 
When they see some one die or know that some one is 
buried, say to them: "Is the dead person in the tomb?" 
— " Yes." " He is not in paradise, then ? " — " Excuse 
me, but he is." "How can he be in the tomb and in 
paradise at the same time ? " — " It is his soul that is in 
paradise, but his body that was laid in the ground." 
" His soul is not his body, then ? " — " No." " His soul 
is rot dead, then?" — " No, it will live forever in heaven." 
Add: "And do you wish to be saved?" — "Yes." "But 
what is it to be saved ? " — " It is to have your soul go 
to paradise when you die." "And what is death ?" — 
" It is the soul's quitting the body, and the body's 
crumbling to dust." 



58 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

I do not claim that you can get children to answer 
thus at first ; yet I can affirm that several have made 
similar responses to me at the age of four : but I will 
suppose a mind less receptive and more backward ; your 
last resource is to wait patiently a few years longer. 

You should show children a house, and teach them 
to understand that this house did not build itself. The 
stones, you may tell them, were not raised without some 
one's lifting them. It is, also, well to show them 
masons at work building : then call their attention to 
the sky, the earth, and the chief things therein which 
God has made for the use of man. Say to them : " See 
how much more beautiful and more skilfully constructed 
the world is than a house. Did it make itself? Un- 
doubtedly not ; God made it with his own hands." 

Follow at first the method of Scripture : appeal vividly 
to their imaginations ; set nothing before them that is 
not clothed with striking imagery. Represent God as 
seated upon a throne, with eyes more brilliant than the 
rays of the sun and more piercing than the flashes of 
the lightning. Describe him as speaking; give him 
ears that hear everything, hands that uphold the uni- 
verse, arms ever raised to punish the wicked, and a ten- 
der and fatherly heart to make those that love him 
happy. The time will come for you to render all this 
information more accurate. Notice every opening pre- 
sented you by the child's intellect ; sound it in various 
places to find out where grand truths can best effect an 
entrance. Above all, never tell a child of anything 
novel without making it seem familiar by some obvious 
comparison. 

For instance, ask a child if it would rather die than 



THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. 59 

renounce Christ. It will answer, "Yes." Then add: 
" What ! You would be willing to have your head cut 
off, in order to enter paradise ? " — " Yes." Up to this 
point the child believes that it would have courage 
enough for this. But if you wish to make it realize 
that one* can do nothing without divine grace, you will 
gain nothing by simply saying that we need grace to be 
faithful : it will not understand all those words ; and if 
you teach it to repeat them, without understanding them, 
you have made no progress in your undertaking. " What 
then shall you do?" Relate the story of St. Peter; 
represent him as saying in a presumptuous tone, 
" Though I should die, I will follow thee ; though all 
others should leave thee, I will never forsake thee." 

Then depict his fall : he denies Christ three times, a 
maid-servant frightens him. Tell why God permitted 
him to be so weak ; then make use of a comparison with 
an infant or a sick person who cannot walk alone, and 
make the child understand that we need that God should 
carry us as a nurse carries an infant ; thus you will make 
clear the mystery of divine grace. 

But the truth most difficult to explain is that we have 
souls more precious than our bodies. We teach chil- 
dren from the first to speak of their souls, and it is well 
to do so ; for this language which they do not understand 
nevertheless accustoms them to assume in a confused 
way, the distinction between body and soul, which they 
will afterwards be able to comprehend. As the prepos- 
sessions of childhood are hurtful when they lead to 
error, so they are advantageous when they accustom the 
imagination to the truths to which the reason cannot 
yet direct it by means of rules. But in the end, a real 



60 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

faith must be established. How can this be done ? By 
plunging a young girl into the subtleties of philosophy ? 
Nothing is so fatal. You must limit yourself to making 
as clear and real as possible to her mind what she hears 
and says every day. 

As to her body, she is only too conscious of it ; every- 
thing leads her to gratify it, to adorn it, and to make it 
her idol. The main point is to inspire her with con- 
tempt for it by showing her something in herself that is 
nobler. 

Say, then, to a child in whom reason is already active : 
" Is it your soul that eats ? " Do not scold it if it make 
the wrong response ; but tell it gently that the soul does 
not eat. Say : " It is the body that eats ; it is the body 
that is like the animals. Have animals any souls ? Do 
they possess knowledge ? ' The child will answer, 
" No. " " But they eat," continue, " although they have 
no souls. You see plainly, then, that it is not the soul 
that eats, it is the body that takes food for its nourish- 
ment, that walks and sleeps." "And what does the 
soul do ? " — " The soul reasons, recognizes people ; likes 
certain things and regards others with dislike." Add, 
as if in sport, "Do you see this table?" — "Yes." 
" You recognize it then ? " — " Yes." " You see clearly 
that it is not made like this chair ; you are sure that it 
is made of wood, and that it is not like this mantel, 
which is made of stone?" "Yes," the child will reply. 
Do not go farther until you are satisfied from the 
expression of its voice and eyes that these simple truths 
have made an impression. Then say, " But does this 
table recognize you ?" You will see that the child will 
begin to laugh in ridicule of this question. No matter, 



THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. 6l 

go on, "Which loves you best, this table or this chair?" 
The child will laugh again ; but continue, " Is this win- 
dow very wise ? " Then try to go a little farther : 
" Does this doll answer when you speak to it ? " — " No." 
" Why ? Has it no soul ? " — " No, it has none." " It 
is not like you then, for you have knowledge of it, but 
it has no knowledge of you. But will you not be like 
this doll after death, when you are beneath the ground?" 
— "Yes." "You will no longer feel anything?" — 
" No." — " You will no longer know any one ? " — " No." 
" And your soul will be in heaven ? " — " Yes." " Will it 
not see God there?" — "Certainly." "And where is 
the soul of the doll now ? " You will see that the child 
will answer you with a smile or, at least, will give you to 
understand that the doll has no soul. 

Upon such a basis and by similar effective little 
devices, you can gradually accustom children to ascribe 
to the body that which belongs to it, and to the soul 
that which proceeds from it, provided that you do not 
indiscreetly go to bringing up certain actions that belong 
to soul and body in common. Subtleties that might 
confuse these truths should be avoided, and you should 
content yourself with distinguishing clearly those things 
in which the difference between soul and body is more 
distinctly marked. 

Perhaps you may find some minds so dull that, even 
with good instruction, they cannot fully understand 
these truths, but besides the fact that it is possible to 
comprehend a subject well enough without being able 
to explain it clearly, God sees, in the mind of man, bet- 
ter than we, what he has placed there for the compre- 
hension of his mysteries. As to those children in 



62 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. » 

whom one perceives an intelligence capable of going 
farther, it is possible, without launching them on study 
that savors too much of philosophy, to make them com- 
prehend, according to the extent of th^ir capacity, what 
is meant when they are taught to say that God is a 
spirit and their souls spirits also. I think the best and 
simplest way to give them an idea of this spiritual 
nature of God and the human soul, is to make them note 
the distinction between a dead man and a living one : 
in the one case there is only a body, in the other the 
body is united with a spirit. After that they must be 
taught that the part that reasons is much more perfect 
than the part that has only shape and movement. Then 
impress upon them, by different examples, that no body 
perishes, but only decomposes ; thus the particles of 
burnt wood fall in ashes or are carried off as smoke. If, 
therefore, you may add, that which is in essence only 
ashes, incapable of knowing and thinking, never perishes, 
with much more reason will our souls, which know and 
think, never cease to exist. The body may die ; that is 
to say, it may part with the soul and turn to dust ; but 
the soul will live on, for it will always think. 

Those who teach children ought to develop in their 
minds as far as possible this knowledge, which is the 
basis of all religion ; but when they cannot succeed in 
doing so, instead of finding fault with slow and inert 
minds, they should trust that God will enlighten them 
inwardly. There is also one effective and practical way 
to strengthen this appreciation of the distinction be- 
tween soul and body ; that is, to give children the habit 
of esteeming the one and despising the other in every 
detail of behavior. Praise learning, which nourishes and 



THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. 63 

develops the soul ; hold in esteem those lofty truths that 
animate it with wisdom and virtue ; have a contempt for 
high living, dress, and all that pampers the body ; make 
them feel how far honor, a good conscience, and religion 
are above all sensual pleasures. By such sentiments, 
without reasoning at all about soul and body, the an- 
cient Romans taught their children to despise the latter 
and to sacrifice it in order to afford the soul the delights 
of virtue and glory. Among them, not only those of 
noble birth but all the people were naturally temperate, 
disinterested, full of contempt for life, and peculiarly 
alive to honor and wisdom. When I speak of the 
ancient Romans I mean those who lived before the 
increase of their dominions had marred the simplicity of 
their customs. 

Let no one say that it is impossible to give children 
such sentiments by means of education. How many 
principles opposed to the dictates of the judgment do 
we see established among us by the force of custom ? 
Take for example the duel, based upon a pretended law 
of honor. It was not from reasoning on the subject, but 
from assuming the principle of the duel to be based on 
a point of honor without reasoning, that people risked 
their lives, and that every swordsman lived in constant 
peril. He who had no quarrel was liable to be involved 
in one at any moment with parties who sought a pretext 
to distinguish themselves in some combat. However 
peaceably disposed a man might be, he could not, with- 
out losing this false honor, avoid a quarrel by an explan- 
ation or refuse to be second to the first comer that 
wished to fight. What authority has been necessary to 
root out this barbarous custom ! See, then, how power- 



64 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

ful are the prejudices produced by education ! They 
will be of still more value in behalf of virtue, if they 
are supported by reason and the hope of the kingdom 
of heaven. The Romans, of whom we have already 
spoken, and before them the Greeks, in the golden age 
of their republics, brought up their children in a con- 
tempt for display and luxury. They taught them to 
value nothing but glory, to aspire, not to possess wealth, 
but to conquer kings that possessed it, and to believe 
that no one could be happy except through virtue. This 
spirit was so firmly established in those republics that 
in accordance with these principles, so opposed to those 
of other nations, they accomplished incredible things. 
The example of so many martyrs and other early Chris- 
tians of every age and rank, shows that the grace of 
baptism, in addition to the help given by education, 
may have a still more wonderful effect upon the faithful 
in making them look with contempt upon all that apper- 
tains to the body. Seek then all the most agreeable 
devices and most striking illustrations to show children 
that our bodies are akin to the brutes and our souls to 
the angels. Describe a rider mounted on a horse and 
guiding it ; tell them that the soul is to the body what 
the rider is to the horse. Draw the inference, in con- 
clusion, that a soul is very weak and unfortunate when 
it allows itself to be carried away by its body as by an 
unruly horse that hurls it over a precipice. Teach 
them further, that physical beauty is a flower that blooms 
in the morning, and at evening is withered and trampled 
under foot ; but that the soul is the image of the im- 
mortal beauty of God. There is, you may add, an order 
of things so much more excellent that they cannot be 



THE FIRST PRINXIPLES OF RELIGION. 65 

seen with the gross eye of flesh by means of which we 
view all that is here below, subject to change and cor- 
ruption. In order to make children realize that there 
are some very real things that eyes and ears cannot per- 
ceive, you must ask them if it is not true that such a 
one is wise and such another talented. When they 
shall have answered, "Yes," say: "But have you seen 
his wisdom ? What color is it ? have you heard it ? 
does it make much noise ? have you touched it ? is it 
cold or warm ? ' The children will laugh, as they will 
also do at similar questions about the soul ; they will 
seem perfectly astonished to be asked the color of a 
soul and whether it is round or square. Then you can 
make them observe that they are, therefore, acquainted 
with some very real things that can neither be seen, 
touched, nor heard, and that these things are of a spirit- 
ual nature. But you should enter very moderately into 
such discussions with girls. I only suggest them here 
for the sake of those whose curiosity and reasoning 
power will lead you to such topics in spite of yourself. 
You must be governed by their talent and their needs. 

Restrain their minds as much as possible within ordi- 
nary bounds, and teach them that there should be, in 
their sex, a modesty about learning almost as delicate 
as that which inspires them with a horror of vice. 

The imagination must be brought to the aid of the 
intellect in order to give children attractive conceptions 
of those truths of religion which the body cannot per- 
ceive. The glory of heaven must be painted for them 
as St. John represents it to us — the tears wiped away 
from every eye, no more death, no more sorrow nor cry- 
ing ; lamentations will have passed away, and misfortunes 



66 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

be over; an eternal joy will flow over the heads of the 
blessed as the waters cover the head of a man immersed 
in the depth of the sea. Picture to them that glorious 
Jerusalem, of which God himself will be the sun that 
there endless day may reign ; a river of peace, a torrent 
of delights, a fountain of life shall waterthis city ; there 
all shall be gold, pearls, and precious stones. I well 
know that all these images pertain to objects of sense ; 
but after the attention of children has been attracted by 
this beautiful representation, the means we have indi- 
cated may be used to recall them to spiritual things. 

Draw the inference that here below we are like travel- 
lers in an inn or under a tent ; that the body is going 
to perish ; that its decay can only be delayed for a few 
years ; but that the soul will take her flight to that celes- 
tial mother country, where she is to live forever in the 
life of God. If the habit of contemplating these sub- 
lime themes with pleasure, and of judging common 
matters from their connection with such lofty hopes, can 
be given to children, an infinite number of difficulties 
will be smoothed away. 

I should like, also, to try to give them some vivid im- 
pressions about the resurrection of the body. Teach 
them that nature is but a universal order established by 
God in his works, and that miracles are only exceptions 
to these general rules ; that, therefore, it costs God no 
more to work a hundred miracles than it costs me to 
leave my bedroom a quarter of an hour before the time 
at which I am accustomed to leave it. After this, recall 
to their minds the story of the resurrection of Lazarus ; 
then, that of the resurrection of Christ and his familiar 
appearances to so many persons within forty days. 



THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. 6 1 / 

Finally, show them that it cannot be difficult for him 
that created man to create him anew. Do not omit the 
comparison to the grain of wheat which is sown in the 
ground and made to decay that it may live again and 
multiply. 

The point in question, however, is not to teach chil- 
dren these moral principles by rote, as the catechism is 
taught them ; such a method would only result in turn- 
ing religion into an affected form of speech, or at least 
into a collection of tedious formalities. Only aid their 
own intelligence, and put them in the way of finding 
these truths in the depths of their own being. By this 
means the truths referred to will be more their own and 
more attractive, and will be more vividly impressed upon 
the mind. Profit by the opportunities offered for making 
clear to them what as yet they perceive only in a con- 
fused way. 

But bear in mind that nothing is so dangerous as 
speaking with contempt of this life to children, without 
proving by every detail of your behavior that you are 
in earnest. Example has astonishing power over us at 
every age, but in childhood this power is unlimited. 
Children greatly enjoy imitating; they have not yet 
formed the habits that render the imitation of others 
difficult ; and furthermore, being incapable of judging 
for themselves concerning the essential qualities of 
things, they decide about them from what they see in 
those that suggest them rather than from the reasons 
by which they are supported. Actions, indeed, are more 
impressive than words. If, then, children see a person 
do the reverse of what he teaches them, they become 
accustomed to looking upon religion as a beautiful cere- 
mony, and upon virtue as an impracticable idea. 



68 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

Never take the liberty of jesting with children about 
what pertains to religion. Many will make fun of the 
devotion of some simple soul, and laugh at the points 
about which he consults his confessor, or at the pen- 
ances that are imposed upon him. You think that all 
this is innocent, but you deceive yourself ; everything 
makes a precedent in this matter. God and what relates 
to his worship should never be spoken of except with a 
seriousness and respect very far removed from such 
license. Never relax with regard to any point of deco- 
rum, but especially with regard to these. Often they 
that are most scrupulous about propriety in worldly 
affairs are coarsest with regard to religious matters. 

When children shall have reflected enough to know 
themselves and to recognize God in themselves, connect 
the historical facts with which they are already familiar 
with this knowledge ; this intermixture will reveal to 
them the whole of religion brought together in their 
minds. They will notice with pleasure the connection 
that exists between their reflections and the history of 
the human race. They will recognize that man was not 
made for himself ; that his soul is the image of God ; 
that his body was endowed with so many admirable 
resources by a divine power and industry ; at once they 
will recall the story of the creation. Later they will 
reflect that they were born with inclinations opposed to 
reason, that they are deceived by pleasure, carried away 
by anger, and that their bodies hurry along their souls 
as an unruly horse carries off his rider, instead of which 
the soul ought to control the body. They will perceive 
the cause of the disorder in Adam's sin ; the story of 
which will make them expect the Saviour who is to 



THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. 69 

reconcile men with God. Here you have the whole 
foundation of religion. 

In order to make them understand better the mys- 
teries, actions, and principles of Jesus Christ, young 
people should be induced to read the Gospel. They 
should therefore be prepared in good time to read the 
word of God as they are prepared to receive the body of 
Christ in the communion. The authority of the Church, 
the spouse of the Son of God and the mother of all the 
faithful, should be established as the chief foundation of 
this preparation. She must be heard, you should say, 
because the Holy Spirit has enlightened her that she 
may explain the Scriptures to us : no one can come to 
Christ but through her. Do not fail to read over often 
with children the passages in which Jesus Christ prom- 
ises to sustain and strengthen the Church that she may 
lead her children in the way of truth. Especially instil 
into girls that sober and temperate discretion that St. 
Paul recommends ; teach them to dread the snare of 
novelty, the- love of which is so natural to their sex; 
prepossess them with a salutary horror of all singularity 
in religion ; set before them that heavenly perfection 
and wonderful discipline that reigned among the early 
Christians ; teach them to blush for our laxity ; and 
make them long for that evangelical purity ; but keep 
them, with extreme care, from every thought of pre- 
sumptuous criticism and indiscreet reform. 

Be desirous then of setting before their eyes the Gos- 
pel and the noble examples of antiquity, but not until 
you have proved their docility and the simplicity of their 
faith. Return constantly to the subject of the Church ; 
show them, in addition to the promises made to her 



yO THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

and the authority given her in the Gospel, the progress 
of all the centuries through which the Church has pre- 
served, amid so many battles and revolutions, an invio- 
lable succession of clergy and doctrine, which is a mani- 
fest fulfilment of the divine promises. If you lay a 
foundation of humility, submission, and .aversion to any 
questionable singularity, you may present to young 
people with very good results all that is most perfect in 
the law of God, in the institution of the sacraments, and 
in the customs of the early Church. I know you can- 
not hope to give such instructions in their fullest extent 
to all classes of children ; I only suggest them here that 
you may give them as exactly as you may be able in 
view of the age and disposition of the minds you would 
instruct. 

Superstition is undoubtedly to be feared for women, 
but nothing uproots it or prevents it more effectually 
than good instruction. This instruction, although it 
should be kept within proper bounds and be very far 
removed from the researches of the learned, should go 
farther than is ordinarily thought. Many a one thinks 
herself well informed who is not at all so, and whose 
ignorance is so great that she is not even in a condition 
to realize how far she falls short of comprehending the 
groundwork of Christianity. Never confuse with faith 
or the practices of piety anything that is not either 
drawn from the Gospel or authorized by the constant 
approval of the Church. Children should be carefully 
warned against certain abuses which are so common 
that one is tempted to regard them as parts of the 
present discipline of the Church, if one is not well 
informed. We cannot be entirely insured against these 



THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. *]l 

abuses unless we go back to their source, study their 
institution and the use that the saints made of them. 

Teach girls, who are naturally too credulous, not to 
accept lightly certain unauthorized traditions and not to 
devote themselves to certain observances that an indis- 
creet zeal has introduced without awaiting the approval 
of the Church. The right way to teach them what they 
ought to think on such subjects, is not to criticise 
severely practices often having piety as the motive of 
their introduction ; but, without finding fault with these, 
to show that they do not rest on a solid foundation. 
Be content with never allowing these matters to make 
a part of the instructions that you give about Chris- 
tianity. Such a silence will suffice to accustom children 
to conceive of Christianity in all its completeness and 
perfection without adding to it these observances. As 
you go along, you may quietly prepare them for the 
arguments of Calvinists. I think such instruction will 
not be useless since we are constantly brought in con- 
tact with persons holding their views and speaking of 
them in the most familiar conversations. 

"They impute to us wrongly," you may say, "such 
excess about images, about the invocation of saints, 
about prayer for the dead, and about indulgences." 
Consider what the Church really teaches about baptism, 
confirmation, the offering of the mass, penance, confes- 
sion, the authority of priests and that of the Pope, who 
is the first among them by the institution of Jesus 
Christ himself, and whose authority one cannot disclaim 
without quitting the Church. This is all that need be 
believed ; what the Calvinists accuse us of adding there- 
to is not Catholic doctrine ; it is putting an obstacle in 



72 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

the way of their reunion with us to desire to make them 
yield to opinions that are disagreeable to them and that 
the Church disavows, as if these opinions were a part of 
our faith. At the same time never fail to point out how 
the Calvinists have rashly condemned the most ancient 
and sacred customs. Say also, that new institutions, 
when in conformity with the ancient spirit, deserve pro- 
found respect, since the authority that establishes them 
is that of the immortal spouse of the Son of God. 

In speaking thus of those who have torn a part of the 
flock away from their former shepherds under the pre- 
text of reform, be sure to set forth how these proud men 
have forgotten the weakness of humanity and made 
religion impracticable for all simple minds, by wishing to 
oblige every individual to examine for himself all the 
articles of Christian doctrine in the Scriptures without 
submitting to the interpretations of the Church. Rep- 
resent Holy Scripture as the sovereign rule of faith 
among believers. Tell them that we recognize, no less 
than heretics, that the Church ought to give way to the 
Scriptures ; but we teach that the Holy Spirit assists 
the Church to explain the Scriptures properly. It is not 
that we prefer the Church to the Scriptures, but the 
interpretation of the Scriptures made by the whole 
Church to our individual interpretation. Is it not the 
height of pride and temerity for an individual to fear 
that the Church will be deceived in her judgment, and 
not to fear being deceived himself in deciding against 
her? 

Inspire children with a desire to know the reason of 
all the ceremonies and words that constitute divine ser- 
vice and the administration of the sacraments. Show 



THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. 73 

them the baptismal font ; let them witness baptisms ; 
on the Thursday before Easter, let them see how the 
holy oil is made ; and on Saturday how the water in the 
fonts is blessed. Give them a taste, not for sermons 
full of vain and affected figures, but for sensible and 
edifying discourses, such as good exhortations and homi- 
lies that make them better understand the words of the 
Gospel. Call their attention to the beautiful and touch- 
ing simplicity to be found in such teaching, and fill them 
with love for the parish where the pastor speaks with 
consecration and authority, however little talent or force 
he may display. Teach them also to love and respect 
all those communities that co-operate in the service of 
the Church ; never allow them to ridicule the dress or 
condition of those devoted to a holy life ; tell them 
of the sanctity of these orders, the benefit derived by 
religion therefrom, and the vast number of Christians 
who advance in these holy retreats to a perfection that 
is almost impracticable in the midst of the engagements 
of the world. Accustom the imaginations of children 
to hearing death spoken of, to seeing without alarm a 
pall, an open tomb, even sick persons in the act of dying 
and those already dead, if you can do so without expos- 
ing them to a shock from fright. 

Nothing is more vexatious than to see so many persons 
of intelligence unable to think of death without shud- 
dering. Others turn pale at finding themselves among 
thirteen guests at table, or at having had certain dreams, 
or at having upset a salt-cellar. The fear of all these 
imaginary omens is a gross remnant of paganism : show 
their folly and absurdity. Although women have not 
the same opportunities to display their courage as men, 



74 THE EDUCA1I0N OF GIRLS. 

they ought to possess that virtue. Cowardice is con- 
temptible everywhere, and everywhere attended by evil 
results. A woman should be able to resist foolish fears ; 
she must be steadfast against unforeseen dangers, and 
should neither weep nor be terrified except on great 
occasions, and even then should be sustained by virtue. 
No Christian of either sex has a right to be a coward. 
The soul of Christianity, if I may thus express myself, 
is contempt for this world and love for the other. 



DECALOGUE, SACRAMENTS, AND PRAYER. 75 



CHAPTER VIII. 

INSTRUCTION ON THE DECALOGUE, THE SACRAMENTS, 

AND PRAYER. 

Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, 
the centre of all religion, and our only hope, is the 
object which it is of prime importance to keep ever 
before the eyes of children. I will not undertake to 
say here, how the mystery of his incarnation should be 
taught them ; for such an undertaking would carry me 
too far, and there are books enough in which can be 
found exactly what ought to be taught on the subject. 
After the principles are fixed, all the judgments and 
actions of the person one instructs should be modelled 
after Jesus Christ himself, who assumed a mortal body 
only for the purpose of teaching us how to live, and to 
die by showing us in his flesh, which was like ours, all 
that we ought to believe and practise. Not that it is 
necessary to be comparing every moment a child's opin- 
ions and actions with the life of Christ; such compari- 
son would become wearisome and be indiscreet : but 
children must be taught to regard the life of Christ as 
our example, and his word as our law. Select from his 
discourses and actions what is most appropriate for a 
child. If it gets impatient at suffering some inconveni- 
ence, recall the memory of Christ upon the cross ; if it 
cannot resign itself to some disagreeable task, point it 
to Christ laboring in a shop up to the age of thirty ; 



j6 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

if it longs to be praised and esteemed, speak of the 
opprobrium heaped upon our Saviour; if it cannot har- 
monize with surrounding persons, lead it to consider 
Christ conversing with sinners and with the most abom- 
inable hypocrites ; if it displays any resentment, hasten 
to depict Christ dying upon the cross -for the very ones 
who caused his death ; if it allows itself to be carried 
away by an indecorous gayety, describe the gentleness 
and moderation of Christ, whose whole life was so 
sedate and serious. In short, lead a child to picture to 
itself often what Christ would think and say, if he were 
still visible in our midst, about our conversations, our 
amusements, and our most serious occupations. "What 
would be our consternation," you may continue, "if he 
should suddenly appear in the midst of us when we are 
most forgetful of his law ! But is not this what will 
happen to each one of us at death, and to the entire 
world when the hidden hour of the General Judgment 
shall arrive?" Then you should depict the overthrow 
of the machinery of the universe, the sun obscured, the 
stars falling from their places, the burning elements 
flowing away like rivers of flame, and the foundations 
of the earth shaken to the centre. " How then," you 
may continue, " should we regard this sky which covers 
us, this earth which bears us, these houses which we 
inhabit, and all these other objects which surround us, 
since they are reserved for fire ? " Then describe the 
opened tombs, the dead collecting together the remains 
of their bodies, Jesus Christ descending from the clouds 
with a lofty majesty, that open book wherein shall be 
written even the most secret thoughts of our hearts, that 
sentence pronounced before the face of all nations and 



DECALOGUE, SACRAMENTS, AND PRAYER. JJ 

ages, the glory that will disclose itself to crown the 
righteous forever and to set them to reign on the same 
throne with Jesus Christ ; and, finally, that lake of fire 
and brimstone, that darkness and eternal horror, that 
gnashing of the teeth and rage shared with demons 
which shall be the portion of guilty souls. 

Do not fail to explain the Decalogue thoroughly to 
children. Show them that it is an abridgment of the 
law of God, and that we find in the Gospel what is only 
contained in the Decalogue by remote implication. 
Explain what counsel is, and do not allow the children 
whom you instruct to delude themselves like the major- 
ity of mankind by a distinction between counsels and 
precepts that may be carried too far. Teach them that 
counsels are given to aid precepts, to strengthen men 
against their own weaknesses, to keep them away from 
the brink of the precipice over which they might be 
carried by their own weight, and, finally, that counsels 
become absolute precepts for those who cannot, under 
certain circumstances, keep the precepts without the 
counsels. For instance, persons that are too suscep- 
tible to the love of the world and the snares of society 
are obliged to follow the Gospel counsel to leave every- 
thing and to retire to solitude. Repeat often the truth 
that the latter kills, but the spirit gives life ; that is to 
say, that the mere observance of outward worship is 
useless and harmful, if it be not animated by a spirit of 
love and piety within. Make this language clear and 
forcible, show that God wishes to be honored by the 
heart and not by the lips ; that ceremonies serve to 
express and to excite our piety, but do not constitute 
that piety ; that the latter is wholly inward since God 



yS THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

seeks worshippers that are such in spirit and in truth ; 
that the main point is to love him in our hearts and to 
consider ourselves as existing in the universe alone with 
him. Teach that he has no need of our words or our 
attitudes, nor even of our money ; that what he wants 
is ourselves ; that we ought not only to do what his law 
prescribes, but to do it so as to obtain therefrom the 
results contemplated by the law in making the require- 
ment ; that, for example, it is of no avail to hear mass 
unless we listen to it in order to unite ourselves to 
Christ, our sacrifice, and to be improved by all that 
brings his immolation before us. Conclude by saying 
" that not all those who cry, " Lord, Lord," shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven ; that if we do not enter 
into the true feelings of love to God, renunciation of 
temporal goods, contempt for ourselves, and abhorrence 
for the world, we make Christianity an empty shadow 
for ourselves and for others. 

Pass on to the sacraments : I take for granted that 
you have already explained, as we have directed, all their 
ceremonies, as far as they have been performed in the 
presence of the child. This will make their spirit and 
aim more obvious ; thus you can make a child compre- 
hend how grand a thing it is to be a Christian, how 
shameful and sad to be one after the fashion of a world- 
ling. Often recall to memory the exorcisms and prom- 
ises of baptism, to show that the example and maxims of 
the world, far from having authority over us, ought to 
make all that comes to us from a source so hateful and 
poisonous, the object of suspicion. Do not even hesi- 
tate to describe, as St. Paul does, the devil ruling in the 
world and stirring the hearts of men with all the violent 



DECALOGUE, SACRAMENTS, AND PRAYER. 79 

passions that lead them to seek wealth, glory, and pleas- 
ure. Toward this pomp, you should say, which belongs 
still more to the devil than to the world, toward this 
spectacle of vanity, a Christian should never turn his 
eyes or his heart. The first step in Christianity, taken 
in baptism, is renouncing all worldly pomp ; to be mind- 
ful of the world in spite of these solemn vows made to 
God, is to fall into a kind of apostasy ; like a monk that, 
in spite of his vows, quits his cloister and penitential 
garb, to re-enter the world. 

Speak, in addition, of how we ought to trample under 
foot the unreasonable contempt for others, the impious 
mockeries, and also the furies of the world, since con- 
firmation makes us soldiers of Jesus Christ that we may 
fight against this enemy. "The bishop," you should 
say, " has laid his hands upon you in order to strengthen 
you against the most violent attacks of persecution ; he 
has anointed you with holy oil in imitation of the an- 
cients, who anointed themselves with oil to make their 
limbs more supple and vigorous when they went to 
combat ; and finally, he has put the sign of the cross 
upon you to teach you that you must be crucified with 
Christ." "We are no longer," you should continue, 
"in the days of persecution, when those who were not 
willing to renounce the Gospel were put to death, but 
the world, which can never cease to be worldly, that is 
to say, corrupt, always carries on an indirect persecution 
of piety, lays snares for it to fall into, scoffs at it, and 
makes its practice so difficult in most conditions of life 
that even in the midst of Christian nations where the 
sovereign authority supports Christianity, we are in 
danger of blushing at the name of Jesus Christ and at 
imitating his life. 



80 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

Represent strongly to children the blessing we enjoy 
in being united to Christ in the eucharist. In baptism, 
he makes us his brothers ; in the eucharist, he makes us 
his members. As by the incarnation he has given him- 
self to human nature in general, by the eucharist, which 
is such a natural sequence to the incarnation, he gives 
himself to each of the faithful in particular. All is real 
in the course of these mysteries : Jesus Christ gives his 
flesh as actually as he assumed it ; but to feed upon the 
life-giving body of Jesus Christ without living in his 
spirit, is to render one's self guilty of the body and 
blood of the Lord and to eat and drink one's own 
damnation. He himself said, " He that feeds upon me 
ought to live for me." 

What a misfortune, you should say further, to have 
need of the sacrament of penance, which implies that 
you have sinned since you have been made a child of 
God. Although that all-heavenly power which is exer- 
cised over the whole earth and which God has placed in 
the hands of his priests that they may bind and loose 
sinners according to their needs, is a great fountain of 
mercy, we should tremble in fear of abusing the gifts 
and the patience of God. We should earnestly desire 
the opportunity of being nourished every day by the 
body of Christ, which is the life, strength, and consola- 
tion of the righteous, but we should desire to obtain 
such perfect spiritual health that the need of the remedy 
for sick souls will diminish every day. This need will 
be only too great, whatever we may do, but it would be 
very wrong to make our lives a continuous and disgrace- 
ful round from sin to penitence and from penitence back 
to sin again. Therefore confession is only intended as 



DECALOGUE, SACRAMENTS, AND PRAYER. 8 1 

a step towards changing and correcting ourselves ; other- 
wise the words of absolution, powerful though they 
be from the institution of Christ himself, would become, 
through our indisposition, words only, and yet words of 
dire import which shall be our condemnation before 
God. Confession without an inward change, far from 
relieving the conscience of the burden of its sins, only 
adds to other sins that of a dreadful sacrilege. 

Have the children you are training to read the prayers 
for the dying, which are admirable ; teach them what 
the Church does and says in administering extreme 
unction to the dying. What a consolation to these to 
receive anew the sacred anointing for this last conflict ! 
But to render ourselves worthy of the blessings of 
death, we must have been faithful to those of life. 

Admire the richness of the grace of Christ Jesus 
who has not disdained to apply the remedy to the 
origin of the evil by sanctifying the source of our birth, 
which is marriage. How fitting it was to make a sacra- 
ment of this union of the man and the woman which 
represents that of God with his creatures and that of 
Christ with his Church ! How needful was this bene- 
diction to moderate the brutal passions of men, to 
spread peace and consolation over all families, to trans- 
mit religion as an inheritance from one generation to 
another ! Hence it must be inferred that marriage is a 
very pure and very holy estate, although less perfect 
than virginity ; that it is necessary to be called thereto ; 
that in it one should seek neither sensual pleasures nor 
worldly splendor, and only desire to bring up saints. 

Praise the infinite wisdom of the Son of God, who has 
set apart pastors to represent himself among us, to in- 



82 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

struct us in his name, to give us his body, to reconcile 
us with him after our falls, and constantly to train up 
new believers, and even new pastors to guide us after 
them, so that the Church may be preserved without 
intermission through all ages. Teach them that we 
ought to rejoice that God has given such power to men. 
Speak also of how religiously we ought to respect the 
Lord's anointed — they are the servants of God and the 
dispensers of his mysteries. Therefore we should lower 
our eyes and sigh when we perceive the slightest stain 
upon them, tarnishing the glory of their ministry ; we 
should long for the power to wash it away, even with 
our own blood. Their doctrine is not their own ; he 
that hears them, hears Christ himself ; when they are 
assembled to expound the Scriptures in the name of 
Christ, the Holy Spirit speaks through them. Their 
time is not their own ; therefore you should not wish to 
make them descend from so lofty a ministry, in which 
they ought to be devoting themselves to the Word and 
to prayer so as to be mediators between God and man, 
and come down to the affairs of the day. Still less is 
it permitted them to wish to profit by their revenues, 
which are the patrimony of the poor and the price of the 
sins of the people. The most frightful error, however, 
is to wish to raise one's friends and relatives to this 
formidable office without a vocation and with a view to 
temporal interest. 

The necessity of prayer, founded on the need of grace 
which we have already explained, remains to be shown. 
God, you should tell a child, wishes us to ask his favor, 
not because he is unaware of our need, but because he 
would subject us to a requirement that will rouse us to 



DECALOGUE, SACRAMENTS, AND PRAYER. 8$ 

a recognition of this need. What he requires of us, 
therefore, is the humbling of our hearts, the realization 
of our misery and helplessness, and, finally, confidence 
in his goodness. The request that he wishes us to make 
consists only in the intention and the desire, for he has 
no need of our words. Often we repeat many words 
without praying, and often we pray in our hearts without 
pronouncing a single word. Yet words may be very 
useful ; for if we are attentive to them, they excite in 
us the thoughts and feelings they express. For this 
reason Christ has provided us with a form of prayer. 
What a comfort to know from Christ himself how his 
Father would be addressed in prayer ! What power 
ought to inhere in the supplications that God himself 
puts into our mouths ! How should he refuse us what 
he has taken pains to teach us to ask for ? Show them 
how simple and sublime is this prayer — brief, yet in- 
cluding all that we can look for from heaven. 

The time for the first confession of children is a thing 
that cannot be decided here ; it should depend upon the 
condition of their minds, and still more upon that of 
their consciences. They should be taught the nature of 
confession as soon as they are capable of understanding 
it. Then wait until one of them commits the first some- 
what noticeable sin, and cover the child with confusion 
and remorse. You will see that one already instructed 
about confession will naturally seek consolation in self- 
accusation to a confessor. Try to act in such a way 
that the child will be stirred to a lively repentance, and 
find by the act of confession a perceptible alleviation of 
the suffering involved, so that this first confession may 
make a great impression upon the mind, and prove a 
source of grace for all the others. 



84 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

The first communion, on the contrary, it seems to me, 
should take place at the period when the child seems 
most docile and most free from any prominent fault. 
One of the first fruits of love to God is that Jesus 
Christ will enable us better to appreciate and enjoy him 
in the grace of communion. The occasion should be 
long looked forward to, that is to say, a child should 
have been trained from earliest infancy to hope for the 
communion as for the greatest blessing to be enjoyed on 
this earth while awaiting the bliss of heaven. I believe 
it should be made as solemn an event as possible, that 
it should seem to children that your eyes are fixed upon 
them at this period, that you esteem them happy, that 
you share their happiness, and that you expect from 
them a conduct above their years after so great a step. 
However, although it is necessary to prepare children 
carefully for communion, I believe that, after they are 
prepared, they cannot be armed too soon with such a 
precious preventing grace, before their innocence shall 
be exposed to the dangerous circumstances in which it 
begins to be sullied. 



SEVERAL FAULTS CHARACTERISTIC OF GIRLS. 85 



CHAPTER IX. 

SEVERAL FAULTS CHARACTERISTIC OF GIRLS. 

The care that must be taken to preserve girls from 
several faults common in their sex is still to be men- 
tioned. Girls are nurtured in a weakness and timidity 
that renders them incapable of a steadfast and well- 
regulated course of conduct. At first affectation, and 
afterwards habit, has much to do with these ill-founded 
fears and tears so lightly shed : a contempt for such 
affectations would aid greatly in correcting them, since 
vanity has so large a share in their production. 

You must repress in girls, also, too tender friendships, 
petty jealousies, excessive compliments, caresses, and 
assiduities : all these spoil them and accustom them to 
consider everything that is grave and serious too cold 
and severe. You should even endeavor to induce them 
to make an effort to speak briefly and precisely. Wit 
consists in cutting off all superfluous speech and saying 
a great deal in a few words, instead of which most 
women say little in many words. They mistake fluency 
of speech and liveliness of imagination for wit ; they do 
not choose among their thoughts ; nor do they establish 
any order there with reference to the matters they 
intend to explain ; they are excited about nearly every- 
thing they say, and excitement makes them say too 
much. Nothing very fine can ever be hoped for from 
a woman unless you can confine her to reasoning con- 



86 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

nectedly, examining her thoughts, setting them forth 
briefly, and after that knowing how to keep silent. 

Another fact contributes largely to the long speeches 
of women ; they are by nature artful and employ round- 
about ways to reach their ends. Women value artifice 
highly, and how could it be otherwise when they are 
acquainted with no better wisdom, and this is usually 
the first thing taught them by example ? They have a 
pliant disposition so as to play readily all sorts of parts ; 
tears cost them nothing, their passions are lively, and 
their knowledge is limited ; hence they neglect nothing 
that makes for success, and means appear good to them 
that would not suit better regulated minds ; they spend 
little time in considering whether they ought to desire a 
thing, but are very industrious in efforts to obtain it. 

In addition, girls are timid and full of false shame, 
which is another source of dissimulation. The way to 
prevent this great evil is to avoid giving them any occa- 
sion for artifice and to accustom them to speaking out 
their inclinations frankly on all permissible subjects. 
Let them be free to show their weariness when they are 
not interested ; let no one compel them to seem to 
enjoy certain persons or books that are not pleasing 
to them. Often a mother, prejudiced in favor of her 
confessor, is dissatisfied with her daughter until she 
accepts his guidance, and the daughter does so, from 
policy, against her inclination. Above all things girls 
should never be allowed to suspect that you wish to 
instill into them a purpose of entering a convent ; for 
such an idea deprives them of faith in their parents, 
persuades them that these do not love them, agitates 
their minds, and leads them to play a forced part for 



SEVERAL FAULTS CHARACTERISTIC OF GIRLS. 8? 

many years. When they have been so unfortunate as 
to form the habit of disguising their feelings, the way 
to set them right is to instruct them soundly in the 
principles of true wisdom ; just as you find that the way 
to disgust them with the frivolous inventions of romance 
is to give them a taste for useful and pleasing stories. 
If you do not rouse a rational curiosity in them, they 
will have an ill-regulated one ; and, in just the same 
way, if you do not train their minds to the true wisdom, 
they will apply themselves to the false, which is artifice. 

Teach them by examples that one can be discreet, 
cautious, and attentive to the legitimate means of suc- 
cess without deception. Tell them that the greatest 
wisdom consists in speaking little, in distrusting one's 
self more than others, and not in making false speeches 
and acting the mar-plot. Rectitude of conduct and a 
universal reputation for honesty procure more confi- 
dence and esteem, and in consequence, in the long run, 
more advantages, even in a temporal way, than indirect 
methods. How this prudent uprightness distinguishes 
a person, and how worthy of great things does it render 
one ! 

But add how mean and contemptible are the objects 
of artifice ; a trifle which you would not like to mention, 
or a hurtful passion. When we only wish what we 
ought to wish, we desire it openly and seek it by direct 
paths with moderation. What is more pleasant and 
comfortable than to be sincere, always tranquil, in har- 
mony with one's self, having nothing to fear or contrive? 
Instead of which a dissembler is always excited, remorse- 
ful, in danger, and under the deplorable necessity of 
hiding one act of deceit with a hundred others. 



88 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

With all these embarrassing disquietudes, artful per- 
sons never escape the inconvenience they would avoid : 
sooner or later they pass for what they really are. If 
the world is their dupe with regard to some detached 
action, it is not so with regard to their lives as wholes, 
they are always found out by some means or other. 
Often, indeed, these artful people are the dupes of those 
whom they would deceive ; for if one seems to be letting 
one's self be deceived by them, they believe themselves 
esteemed when they are despised. And then, at least, 
they are not secured against suspicions ; and what is 
more inconsistent with the benefits to be sought by a 
prudent self-interest than finding one's self always sus- 
pected. Say these things to girls from time to time 
according to the occasions offered, their needs, and the 
scope of their intelligence. 

Observe further that artifice always proceeds from a 
base heart and a petty mind. Persons are artful only 
because they wish to conceal their true selves, not being 
such as they ought to be ; or because, desiring permis- 
sible things, they take unworthy means to obtain them, 
instead of managing to select honorable ones. Call 
children's attention to the folly of certain artifices which 
they see employed, the contempt which they draw on 
those who employ them ; and, finally, make the children 
ashamed of themselves when you surprise them in any 
dissimulation. Deprive them from time to time of what 
they like because they try to obtain it by artifice ; de- 
clare that they shall get it when they ask for it frankly. 
Do not even fear to be compassionate to the little weak- 
nesses of children, in order that you mav give them 
courage to let you see these weaknesses. False shame 



SEVERAL FAULTS CHARACTERISTIC OF GIRLS. 89 

is the evil that is most dangerous and that most demands 
remedy ; this defect alone, if you are not careful, will 
make all the others incurable. 

Undeceive children with regard to those wicked sub- 
tleties by which people try to deceive their neighbors 
without any one's being able to reproach them with the 
deception ; there is even more baseness and deceit in 
these subtle impositions than in ordinary frauds. Other 
persons practice deception in good faith, so to speak ; 
but those who use such tricks add a new disguise to give 
it authority. Tell a child that God is truth itself ; and 
that it is trifling with God to trifle with truth in our 
utterances ; that we ought to make them precise and 
exact and to speak little in order that we may say noth- 
ing but what is right and may show our respect for the 
truth. 

Be very careful then not to imitate those persons who 
applaud children when they have shown some intelli- 
gence in an act of deceit. Far from finding these tricks 
pretty and amusing yourself with them, repress them 
severely; and make all children's artifice turn out badly, 
in order that experience may disgust them with schem- 
ing. By praising them for such faults, you would per- 
suade them that it is clever to be artful. 



90 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE VANITY OF BEAUTY AND ADORNMENTS. 

Dread no trait in girls so much as vanity. They are 
born with an ardent desire of pleasing. The paths that 
lead men to power and glory being closed to them, they 
try to indemnify themselves by charms of mind and 
body ; from this proceeds their gentle and winning 
speech, from this, the fact that they long so for beauty 
and all outward graces, and that they are so passionately 
fond of adornments : a head-dress, a bit of ribbon, a 
ringlet higher or lower, the choice of a color, — all these 
take rank with important affairs in their eyes. 

This excess goes to a greater extreme in our country 
than in any other. The changing fancy that rules among 
us produces a continual variety in fashions ; thus to the 
love of adornment is added that of novelty, which has 
peculiar charms for such minds. These two follies put 
together destroy the boundaries of ranks and overthrow 
all customs. Since there is no longer any standard for 
dress and furniture, there is no longer any real one for 
different ranks ; for as to the table of individuals, it is 
what public authority can least regulate ; each one 
chooses acording to his means, or rather, without regard 
to means, — according to his ambition and his vanity. 

This ostentation ruins families ; and the ruin of fami- 
lies entails the corruption of morals. On the one hand, 
ostentation excites, in those of low birth, an eagerness 



THE VANITY OF BEAUTY AND ADORNMENTS. 91 

for a sudden fortune, which cannot be acquired without 
sin, as the Holy Spirit assures us. On the other hand, 
the nobility, finding themselves without resources, com- 
mit acts of cowardice and dreadful meannesses in order 
to sustain their expenditure ; and in this way, by imper- 
ceptible degrees, honor, fidelity, honesty, and humanity 
are extinguished even between the nearest relations. 

All these evils result from the authority to decide 
upon the fashions that is possessed by silly women ; 
such arbiters have made all that wish to preserve the 
moderation and simplicity of ancient customs to be ac- 
counted foolish barbarians. 

Apply yourself, then, to teaching girls to appreciate 
how much more estimable is the honor that comes from 
good conduct and real ability than that derived from hair 
or dress. Beauty, you should tell them, deceives the 
one that possesses it far more than those who are daz- 
zled thereby ; it disturbs her and intoxicates her soul ; 
she becomes more foolishly idolatrous of herself than 
the most impassioned lovers of the persons whom they 
adore. Between a beautiful woman and one that is not 
so, there is only a difference of a very few years. 
Beauty will only be detrimental unless it helps to marry 
a girl well, and how can it help in that direction if it be 
not supported by merit and virtue ? She can only hope 
to wed a young fool with whom she will be unhappy, 
unless her discretion and modesty cause her to be sought 
by men whose minds are steady and appreciative of 
solid qualities. Persons that derive all their pride from 
their beauty soon become ridiculous ; they reach, with- 
out realizing the fact, an age when their beauty fades, 
and they are still charmed with themselves, when the 



92 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

world, on the contrary, is disgusted with them. In 
short, to rely on beauty alone is as unreasonable as to 
wish to base all merit on physical strength, according to 
the custom of barbarous and savage nations. 

Let us pass on from beauty to dress. Genuine charms 
do not depend on vain and studied attire. True, we 
may seek for neatness, suitableness, and propriety in the 
clothes needed to cover our bodies ; but after all, these 
fabrics which cover us, and which can be made suitable 
and attractive, can never be the adornments that give 
true beauty. 

I should wish, also, to call the attention of young girls 
to the noble simplicity shown in the statues and other 
representations that remain to us of the Greek and the 
Roman women. In these they would see how attractive 
and majestic are hair tied carelessly back, and full dra- 
peries floating in long folds. It would be well, also, to 
let them listen to the conversation of artists and other 
persons that have the exquisite taste of antiquity. 

If you can elevate their minds but a little above the 
prejudices of fashion, they will soon have a contempt for 
their curls, so far from natural, and dresses of over-fanci- 
ful style. I very well know that it is not to be expected 
that they should assume an antique appearance ; it would 
be folly to wish it ; but they might, without any singu- 
larity, acquire a taste for that simplicity of dress which 
is so noble and gracious, and, besides, so in harmony 
with Christian principles. Thus, while outwardly con- 
forming to present usage, they would at least know what 
should be thought of such usage. They would comply 
with fashion as with a disagreeable obligation, and yield 
to it only what could not be refused. Point out to them, 



THE VANITY OF BEAUTY AND ADORNMENTS. 93 

often and at an early period, the vanity and lightness of 
mind that causes the inconstancy of the fashions. It is 
a great mistake, for example, to increase the size of the 
head with innumerable piled-up decorations. True 
grace follows nature, and never conflicts with her. 

Fashion, moreover, destroys itself; it aims always at 
perfection, but never reaches it ; at least it is never 
willing to stop there. Fashion would be reasonable if 
it changed only to change no more after having found 
the perfection of convenience and gracefulness ; but is 
not to change only for the sake of changing, to follow 
after fickleness and excess rather than after elegance 
and good taste ? Besides, usually nothing is involved in 
the fashions but caprice. Women are in possession of 
the deciding power in this matter ; they are the only 
ones who will be believed with regard to it : thus the 
more frivolous and less instructed minds carry the others 
along. They neither choose nor abandon anything by 
rule ; that a well-designed style should have been in 
fashion a long time, is enough to prevent its being so 
any longer and to enable another, which though absurd 
has the claim of novelty, to take its place and be 
admired. 

After having laid this foundation, teach them the 
principles of Christian modesty. We learn from our 
holy mysteries that man is born with the taint of sin : 
his body, laboring under a contagious disease, is an 
inexhaustible source of temptation to his soul. Jesus 
Christ teaches us to place all our virtue in distrust and 
defiance of ourselves. Would you wish, you might say 
to a girl, to hazard your soul and that of your neighbor 
for a foolish vanity ? Have a horror, therefore, of ex- 



94 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

posure of the neck and shoulders and of all other acts 
of immodesty : even when such improprieties are in- 
dulged in without any evil passion, at least they imply 
vanity, they imply an unbridled desire to please. Does 
this vanity justify before God and before man conduct 
so rash, so improper, and so dangerous to others ? Is 
this blind desire of pleasing in harmony with a Chris- 
tian spirit which ought to regard as idolatrous all that 
turns man from the love of the Creator and contempt 
for the creature ? And then when you endeavor to 
please what are you striving to do ? Is it not to rouse 
the passions of men ? Have you the power to restrain 
them if they go too far ? And will they not always go 
too far if inflamed in the slightest degree ? You prepare 
a subtle and mortal poison, scatter it among the spec- 
tators, and think yourself innocent ! Add examples of 
persons whom modesty has made commendable and of 
those whom immodesty has led astray. But, above all 
things, allow nothing in a girl's dress that is above her 
station in life ; repress severely all her fancies. Show 
her to what danger she exposes herself, and how con- 
temptible she makes herself in the eyes of all sensible 
people by thus forgetting her position. 

What remains to be done is to destroy the illusions 
held by girls with regard to wit. If you do not take 
care, when they have some vivacity, they will intrigue, 
they will wish to talk on every subject, they will decide 
on matters least proportioned to their capacity, and 
affect to be wearied on account of their delicacy. A 
girl should only speak in behalf of her real needs, and 
then with an air of doubt and deference; she ought 
not to speak on subjects above the ordinary capacity of 



THE VANITY OF BEAUTY AND ADORNMENTS. 95 

girls, although she may be instructed in them. Though 
she may have as much as she could desire of memory, 
vivacity, pleasant manners, and fluency in graceful con- 
versation, she shares these qualities with a large number 
of other women who are very silly and contemptible. 
But if she be possessed of a guarded and steady de- 
meanor, and an equable and well-regulated mind ; if she 
know how to be silent and to manage anything ; these 
very rare qualities will distinguish her among her sex. 

Fastidiousness and an affectation of ennui must be 
repressed by showing that good taste consists in being 
pleased with things in proportion to their utility. 
Nothing is estimable except good sense and virtue; both 
of which lead us to regard dissatisfaction and ennui as 
resulting, not from laudable refinement, but from the 
weakness of a diseased mind. 

Since we must associate with common spirits, and 
engage in occupations that are not delightful, good 
sense, which is the only true refinement, consists in 
accommodating ourselves to ordinary persons. A mind 
that appreciates elegance, but knows how to rise above 
it in a case of necessity in order to attain more valuable 
ends, is infinitely superior to those characters who are 
fastidious and the slaves of their own dislikes. 



96 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE SPECIAL DUTIES OF WOMEN. 

Let us come now to a detailed account of those 
matters about which a woman should be instructed. 
What are her employments ? To her is entrusted the 
education of her children ; of the boys up to a certain 
age, of the girls until they are married or enter a con- 
vent. She has also the care of the conduct of her ser- 
vants, of their morals and their work ; of every item of 
expenditure ; of the manner of arranging everything 
economically and creditably ; and usually even of man- 
aging the estates and receiving the income. 

The learning of women, like that of men, should be 
confined to instruction connected with their duties ; the 
difference in their employments should be the ground 
of the difference in their studies. The instruction of 
women, therefore, should be limited to the subjects we 
have mentioned. If an inquisitive woman feels that this 
is setting narrow bounds to her curiosity, she deceives 
herself ; she does not realize the importance and the 
extent of the matters upon which I propose that she 
shall be instructed. 

What discernment will she require to find out the 
disposition and talents of each of her children, and to 
discover the way of conducting herself with them that 
is best adapted for developing their tempers, inclina- 
tions, and gifts, for anticipating their budding passions, 






THE SPECIAL DUTIES OF WOMEN. 97 

for giving them good principles, and for correcting their 
errors ? What wisdom ought she to possess in order to 
acquire and to maintain authority over them without 
losing their affection and confidence. And then, does 
she not need to watch and to understand thoroughly 
those whom she places near her children? Undoubtedly. 
The mother of a family, therefore, should be fully 
instructed with regard to religion, and have a mind that 
is mature, steady, diligent, and skilled in management. 

Can any one doubt that all these cares are entrusted 
to women since they fall to them naturally even during 
the liv r es of their husbands, who are occupied abroad ? 
These duties concern them still more nearly if they 
become widows. Finally, St. Paul connects their sal- 
vation in the main with the education of their children, 
when he asserts that it is through these children that 
they shall be saved. 

I do not explain here all that women ought to know 
to enable them to educate their children, because this 
reminder will suffice to make them perceive the extent 
of the knowledge that it is necessary they should possess. 

To this care, add economy. Most women neglect 
this as a menial employment, only suited to peasants 
and farmers, or better still, to a steward or housekeeper. 
Women reared in ease, luxury, and idleness, are espe- 
cially indolent and contemptuous with regard to such 
details : they see no great difference between a rural 
life and that of the savages in Canada. If you speak to 
them of the sale of wheat, of the methods of cultivating 
land, of the different kinds of revenues, of the levy of 
rents and other manorial rights, of the best way to let 
out farms and appoint bailiffs, they think you are trying 
to bring them down to occupations unworthy of them. 



98 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

Yet it is only from ignorance that any one despises 
this science of economy. The ancient Greeks and 
Romans, so clever and so polished, studied it most 
assiduously : the greatest minds among them composed 
books upon the subject from their own experience 
which still remain to us, and in which the minutest 
details of agriculture are noted. It is well known that 
their conquering generals did not disdain to labor and 
to return to the plough after a triumph. This is so far 
removed from our customs that we could not believe it 
if history had left us any pretext for doubt. Yet is it 
not natural that one should think of defending or enlarg- 
ing his country only for the sake of cultivating it in 
peace ? Of what use is victory save to reap the fruits 
of peace ? After all, it is the part of good sense to wish 
to be instructed precisely in the method of doing all 
that lies at the basis of human life ; all great affairs 
depend thereon. The strength and happiness of a state 
consists, not in having a large number of poorly culti- 
vated provinces, but in obtaining from the land in its 
possession all that is needed to support easily a numer- 
ous population. 

Undoubtedly, to become skilled in all the arts per- 
taining to economy and to be qualified to govern well 
an entire household, which is a small republic, requires 
a loftier and broader genius than to jest, to talk about 
the fashions, and to exercise the small graces of conver- 
sation. The talent that only extends to talking well is 
of a very contemptible order. On every side we see 
women whose conversation is full of sensible maxims, 
but who, for want of having been diligent at the right 
time, show nothing but frivolity in their behavior. 



THE SPECIAL DUTIES OF WOMEN. 99 

Be equally on your guard against the opposite defect : 
women are in danger of being extreme in everything. 
It is well to accustom them from infancy to having 
charge of something, to keeping accounts, to noting 
how purchases of every kind are made, and to learning 
how each particular thing should be done in order to 
conform to good usage. But beware of letting economy 
run into avarice with them ; show them in detail all the 
ridiculous features of that passion. Speak to them in 
the following strain : " Remember that avarice gains 
little, and dishonors itself greatly. A reasonable person 
will only seek to avoid, by a frugal and industrious life, 
the disgrace and injustice that attaches to prodigal and 
ruinous behavior. To retrench superfluous expendi- 
ture is necessary only that one may be in a condition to 
do more liberally what propriety, affection, or charity 
prompts. Often to contrive to lose at the right place 
secures a great gain ; it is good management, and not 
stated, sordid economies that bring large profits." Do 
not fail to point out the gross error of those women who 
are pleased at saving a candle, but allow themselves to 
be deceived by a steward about the sum total of their 
affairs. 

Have regard to neatness as well as to economy. Ac- 
custom girls to put up with nothing that is unclean or 
out of order, so that they will notice the least disorder 
in a house. Remind them, too, that nothing contributes 
more to economy and neatness than keeping everything 
always in its own place. This rule seems trivial, but, if 
carefully observed, goes a long way. Do you want any- 
thing ? You never lose a moment in hunting it. There 
is no trouble, no dispute, no embarrassment when you 






100 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

need it ; you put your hand upon it at once, and when 
you have used it, you immediately put it back in the 
place from which you took it. This good order consti- 
tutes one of the largest parts of neatness ; such a care- 
ful arrangement is what most strikes the eye. Besides, 
the place assigned to each thing being that which suits 
it best, not only as regards elegance and the pleasure of 
the eye, but also for its preservation, it will be less worn 
out there than elsewhere ; there, it will not be injured 
by any accident as a general thing ; there, it will even 
be kept more neatly, for, as an example, a vessel will 
neither get dusty nor be in danger of getting broken 
when it is put back into its place immediately after it is 
used. The spirit of precision that leads to setting 
things in order, leads also to keeping them clean. Add 
to these advantages that of ridding domestics by such a 
habit of the spirit of idleness and confusion. Besides, 
it is a great thing to render their service prompt and 
ready, and to deprive one's self of the temptation to 
be impatient oftentimes at the delays that result from 
disarranged things which are difficult to find. At the 
same time an excess of neatness and elegance is to be 
avoided. Neatness, when tempered by moderation, is a 
virtue, but when carried beyond good taste it degener- 
ates into pettiness of spirit. Good taste excludes ex- 
cessive fastidiousness, treats trifles as trifles, and is not 
offended thereby. Speak with contempt before chil- 
dren of the trinkets to which some women are so 
devoted, and which insensibly lead them to such indis- 
creet expenditures. Accustom them to a neatness that 
is simple and easy to practice ; show them the best way 
to do things, but show them still more how to pass them 



THE SPECIAL DUTIES OF WOMEN. IOI 

by. Tell them how much pettiness of mind and mean- 
ness there is in scolding about a poorly seasoned soup, 
a badly draped curtain, or a chair too low or too high. 

It is undoubtedly a mark of a better dispositions be 
voluntarily inelegant than to be fastidious about such 
unimportant matters. This false delicacy, if it be not 
repressed in women of talent, is still more dangerous 
with regard to conversation than in all other respects : 
almost every one is insipid and tiresome to them ; the 
least want of polish seems monstrous to them ; they are 
always contemptuous and disgusted. They should be 
early taught that nothing is so unwise as to judge a per- 
son superficially by his manners instead of considering 
the depth of his intellect, his feelings, and his useful 
qualities. Show them, by different experiences, how 
much more estimable is a countryman of a common, 
or, if you will, ridiculous appearance, with his ill-timed 
compliments, than a courtier who conceals under accom- 
plished manners an ungrateful heart that is dishonest 
and capable of all kinds of meanness and dissimulation. 
Add that there is always some weakness in minds that 
have a great inclination to ennui and disgust. No one's 
conversation is so bad that some good cannot be derived 
from it : although when free to choose we should choose 
the best, there is one consolation when we are reduced 
to it, since we can make persons talk of what they know, 
and the talented can thus get some instruction always 
from the least enlightened. But let us return to the 
subjects in which a girl should be instructed. 



102 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CONTINUATION OF THE DUTIES OF WOMEN. 

There is a science of domestic service which is not 
insignificant. Servants that have some honor and relig- 
ion should be selected : you should be familiar with the 
duties to which you would assign them, the time and 
pains that must be devoted to each thing, the best man- 
ner of executing every task, and the expenditure neces- 
sary in each case. For example, you will blame a 
steward unjustly, if you wish him to prepare a dessert 
more quickly than it is possible to do so, or if you do 
not know, almost exactly, the quantity of sugar and 
other ingredients that should enter into the dish you 
wish him to make : thus, if you have no knowledge of 
the employments of your servants, you are in danger of 
being either their dupe or their scourge. You must 
also be acquainted with the tempers of your servants, 
direct their minds, and govern in a Christian way the 
whole of that little republic which is usually very tumult- 
uous. Some authority is undoubtedly necessary ; for 
the less reasonable people are, the more they must be 
restrained by fear : but as these servants are Christians, 
who are your brothers in Christ and to whom you owe 
respect as to his members, you are under obligation to 
display authority only when persuasion fails. 

Seek, therefore, to make yourself beloved by the 
members of your household without any degrading famil- 



CONTINUATION OF THE DUTIES OF WOMEN. IO3 

iarity. Do not enter into conversation with them ; but, 
on the other hand, do not hesitate to speak to them 
often enough, kindly and without condescension, about 
their needs. Let them be certain of finding in you 
counsel and compassion : do not reprove them harshly 
for their faults ; do not appear so much surprised or 
repelled by these, as hopeful that they will not prove 
incorrigible. Compel them kindly to listen to reason, 
and put up with them often in respect to their service in 
order to be in a condition to convince them soberly that 
you speak to them without vexation or impatience, less 
for the sake of your work than in their interest. It will 
not be easy to accustom young persons of noble birth 
to this gentle and charitable behavior ; for the impa- 
tience and ardor of youth added to the false idea that is 
given them about their birth, leads them to regard ser- 
vants almost as they look upon horses : they think them- 
selves of a different nature from their attendants, and 
imagine that the latter are created for the convenience 
of their masters. Try to show them how opposed such 
ideas are to modesty toward's one's self and humanity 
towards one's neighbor. Explain to them that men 
were not made to be waited on ; that it is a gross error 
to believe that some men are born to humor the idleness 
and pride of others ; that, as servitude has been estab- 
lished in opposition to the natural equality of man, it 
should be softened as much as possible; that as masters, 
who are better educated than their servants, are full of 
faults, it should not be expected that the latter, who 
have been without instruction and good examples, should 
be free from them ; that if servants injure themselves 
by serving poorly, what is ordinarily called being well 



104 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

served injures masters still more ; for this facility in 
being satisfied in every respect only tends to weaken 
the mind, so as to render it ardent and eager for the 
most trifling luxuries, in short, to abandon it to its own 
desires. 

Nothing is better for this domestic management than 
to accustom girls thereto at an e'arly period. Assign 
them something to control, on condition of rendering 
an account to you : this confidence will charm them, 
for youth feels an incredible delight when first trusted 
and allowed to enter upon some serious occupation. A 
beautiful example of this is found in Queen Margaret. 
This princess relates in her Memoirs that the most 
vivid pleasure experienced by her during her life was 
occasioned by finding that the queen, her mother, began 
to speak to her when she was still very young as if she 
were a mature person ; she, who, up to this time, had 
known nothing but childish sports, felt herself tran- 
sported with joy at sharing the confidence of the queen 
and her brother, the Duke of Anjou, with regard to the 
secrets of the state. Even allow a girl to commit some 
mistakes in such attempts and sacrifice something to 
her instruction ; call her attention kindly to what she 
should have said or done to avoid the difficulties into 
which she has fallen ; tell her of your own past experi- 
ences, and do not hesitate to mention to her mistakes 
similar to her own which you committed in your youth. 
Thus you will give her confidence, without which edu- 
cation is reduced to irksome forms. 

Teach a girl to read and write correctly. It is dis- 
graceful, but common, to meet women of some talent and 
culture that do not know how to pronounce what they 



CONTINUATION OF THE DUTIES OF WOMEN. IO5 

read correctly ; they either hesitate or drawl in reading, 
instead of which one should pronounce in a simple and 
natural, but firm and sustained, tone. They are still 
more grossly deficient in orthography, or in the manner 
of forming and connecting their letters in writing. At 
least, accustom them to making their lines straight, so 
as to render their handwriting clear and legible. Girls 
must also be familiar with grammar. In the case of 
their native tongue, it is not needful to teach it to them 
by means of rules, as scholars learn Latin at college ; 
only teach them, while avoiding affectation, not to use 
one tense for another, to employ correct expressions, 
and to set forth their thoughts clearly and connectedly, 
and in a brief and precise manner. You will thus place 
them in a condition to teach their children some day to 
speak correctly without any study. It is well known 
that the mother of the Gracchi in ancient Rome con- 
tributed greatly by a good education to form the elo- 
quence of her children, who became such distinguished 
men. 

Girls ought also to comprehend the four rules of 
arithmetic ; you will help them practically in this re- 
spect by having them often reckon up accounts. This 
is a very painful task to many persons ; but a habit of 
performing it, formed in childhood, added to facility in 
computing rapidly by the aid of rules all kinds of most 
complicated accounts, will lessen this distaste greatly. 
It is well known that exactness in keeping accounts 
often produces good order in households. 

It would be well also for girls to know something of 
the principal rules of law ; for instance, the difference 
between a will and a deed of gift ; the nature of a con- 



106 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

tract, of an entail, of a division among joint heirs, the 
main provisions of the law or of the customs of the 
country in which we live for rendering these acts valid ; 
what is one's own and what belongs to the community ; 
the distinction between personal and real estate. If 
they marry, all their most important affairs hinge upon 
these matters. 

Show girls, at the same time, how incapable they are 
of penetrating the difficulties of the law ; how, from the 
weakness of the human intellect, the law itself is full 
of obscurities and doubtful rules ; how jurisprudence 
varies ; how all that depends on judges becomes uncer- 
tain, however clear it may seem ; and how ruinous and 
distressing is the length of even the most prosperous 
suits. Point out to them the agitation of a court of jus- 
tice, the raging of chicanery, the pernicious windings 
and subterfuges of legal proceedings, the immense ex- 
pense they involve, the miserable condition of those who 
go to law, the eagerness of counsellors, attorneys, and 
clerks to enrich themselves speedily by impoverishing 
the litigants. Speak also of the means that render a 
suit, right at bottom, unfortunate on account of its form ; 
of the contradiction of principles in different tribunals : 
if you are referred to the Grand Chamber, your suit is 
gained ; if you go to the Court of Inquiry, it is lost. 
Do not forget the conflicts of jurisdiction, and the dan- 
ger one is in of pleading before a court for many years 
to find out where to plead.- Finally, call attention to 
the difference of opinion often found between counsellors 
and judges about the same suit ; in the consultation you 
gained the cause, but your decree charges you with the 
costs. 



CONTINUATION OF THE DUTIES OF WOMEN. 107 

All these points seem to me of value in preventing 
women from being eager for law-suits, and from blindly 
abandoning themselves to counsels at enmity with peace, 
when they are widows or mistresses of their own prop- 
erty in another condition. They ought to listen to their 
business advisers, but not yield to them altogether. 

They should distrust these with regard to the suits 
which they try to get them to undertake, consult men 
of broader minds and more alive to the advantages of a 
compromise ; and, finally, they should be convinced that 
the truest wisdom with regard to law-suits is to foresee 
their inconveniences, and avoid them. 

Girls of noble birth and considerable property should 
be instructed in the duties of land-owners ; tell them 
what can be clone to prevent the abuses, the outrages, 
the chicaneries, and the frauds so frequent on estates. 
With these instructions unite methods of establishing 
little schools and charitable societies for the relief of the 
sick poor. Call their attention, also, to the traffic that 
may be established sometimes in certain districts to 
diminish the wretchedness there ; but, above all, teach 
them how useful instruction and Christian government 
can be obtained for the people. All this requires too 
many particulars to be given here. 

In explaining the duties of lords, do not forget their 
rights. Teach girls the meanings of the terms fiefs, 
lord paramount, vassal, homage, rents, impropriation of 
tithes, right of champerty, fines of alienation, indem- 
nities, amortization and recognizances, court-rolls, and 
other similar expressions. This information is indis- 
pensable, since the management of estates is entirely 
made up of such matters. 



108 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

After these instructions — which ought to occupy the 
first place — I think it is not unprofitable to allow girls, 
according to their leisure and the extent of their intel- 
ligence, to read profane books that contain nothing 
dangerous to the passions. This is, indeed, the means 
of disgusting them with comedies and romances. Put 
into their hands, then, Greek and Roman histories ; in 
these they will find remarkable examples of courage and 
of disinterestedness. Do not leave them in ignorance 
of the history of France, which has its attractions too ; 
add the histories of neighboring countries and well- 
written stories of remote lands, — all these serve to 
develop the intellect and to lift the soul to noble senti- 
ments, provided that vanity and affectation are avoided. 
It is ordinarily believed that a girl of noble birth whom 
one would bring up well should learn Italian and Span- 
ish ; but I consider nothing less useful than such studies 
unless a girl is in attendance upon some Spanish or 
Italian princess, such as our Medicean or Austrian 
queens. Under other circumstances, these two lan- 
guages are of very little service to girls, except in read- 
ing books that are dangerous and likely to increase the 
defects of their sex. There is much more to be lost 
than to be gained by such study. The study of Latin 
would be much more reasonable, for that is the language 
of the Church ; good results and most precious consola- 
tion follow from understanding the meaning of the words 
of divine service, in which we so often take part. Even 
those who seek for beauties of expression will find much 
more perfect and sound examples of them in Latin than 
in Italian and Spanish, where a play of wit and liveliness 
of fancy reign without restraint. I should be willing, 



CONTINUATION OF THE DUTIES OF WOMEN. IO9 

however, to teach Latin only to girls of sound judgment 
and modest behavior, who would know how to value such 
an acquirement justly, would abstain from foolish curi- 
osity, would conceal what they learned, and seek only 
improvement therefrom. 

I should also permit girls, though with much discre- 
tion, to read works of eloquence and poetry, if I saw 
that they had a taste for these subjects and that their 
judgments were sound enough to confine them to the 
right use of such books ; but I would beware of unset- 
tling their too active imaginations and wish to see a 
careful moderation in all this. Everything that can 
awaken the passion of love seems to me the more dan- 
gerous, the more it is softened and cloaked. 

The same precautions are required with regard to 
music and painting ; all these arts are of the same spirit 
and flavor. As for music, it is well known that the 
ancients believed nothing to be more dangerous for a 
well-governed republic than to allow the introduction of 
an effeminate melody. Such music enervates men, and 
renders their souls weak and voluptuous : languishing 
and passionate strains afford so much pleasure only 
because the mind gives itself up to the charm of the 
senses even to the point of intoxication. This is why 
the magistrates of Sparta broke all instruments of which 
the harmony was too entrancing, which was one of the 
most important regulations of that city ; this is why 
Plato severely rejected all the delicious tones that enter 
into Asiatic music. With much more reason should 
Christians, who ought never to seek pleasure for itself 
alone, hold in aversion such poisonous delights. 

If everything that does not tend to a good end were 



IIO THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

taken away from poetry and music, they might be very 
advantageously employed to excite in the soul vivid and 
sublime feelings with regard to virtue. How many 
poetical works are contained in the scriptures which, to 
all appearances, were sung by the Hebrews ! Hymns 
were the first records that preserved more distinctly, 
before the scriptures, the tradition of divine things 
among men. We have seen how powerful music has 
been among heathen nations in lifting the soul above 
vulgar sentiments. The Church has deemed herself 
unable to console her children in any better way than 
by singing the praises of God. These arts, therefore, 
which the spirit of God himself has consecrated, cannot 
be given up. Christian music and poetry would be the 
greatest of all aids in giving a distaste for worldly pleas- 
ures, but, with the false precedents that exist in our 
nation, a taste for these arts is scarcely without danger. 
You must hasten, then, to show a young girl whom you 
find very susceptible to such impressions, how many 
charms can be found in music without quitting sacred 
subjects. If she has some voice and some talent for 
the beauties of music, do not hope to keep her always 
in ignorance of them ; prohibition would increase the 
passion. It would be better to give this torrent a fixed 
course than to undertake to stem it. 

Painting is more easily turned to profit among us ; it 
has, besides, a special advantage for women because 
without it their needlework cannot be well planned. I 
know that they might be confined to those simple pieces 
of work that require no art ; but, with the purpose 
which it seems to me one should have of occupying the 
minds at the same time that you occupy the hands 



CONTINUATION OF THE DUTIES OF WOMEN. I I I 

of women of rank, I should prefer that they do work 
in which art and skill would season labor with some 
degree of pleasure. Such productions cannot have any 
beauty unless guided by a knowledge of the rules of 
design. Hence it is that nearly all we see now in the 
way of stuffs, lace, and embroidery is in bad taste ; in 
them everything is confused, without design, without 
proportion. Such things pass for beautiful because they 
cost those who make them much labor and those who 
purchase them much money ; their gaudiness dazzles 
those who look at them from a distance or who are not 
good judges. Women have based their rules of fashion 
upon these : he that would criticise them would be 
regarded as visionary. Women, however, might unde- 
ceive themselves by studying painting, and thus placing 
themselves in a position to produce, with moderate 
expenditure and great pleasure, works of a noble vari- 
ety and of a beauty that would be above the uncertain 
caprices of fashion. 

Women ought equally to dread and to despise idle- 
ness. Let them reflect how the early Christians, what- 
ever their rank might be, labored, not to amuse them- 
selves, but to make of labor a serious, steady, and profit- 
able occupation. The order of nature ; the penance 
imposed on the first man, and in him on all his pos- 
terity ; that of which the new man, which is Christ 
Jesus, has left us such a grand example, — everything 
urges us to a laborious life, each one after his own 
fashion. 

In the education of a young girl, you should take into 
consideration her rank, the places where she is likely to 
spend her life, and the calling she will in all probability 



112 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

take up. Guard against her entertaining hopes above 
her means and station. There are few persons whom 
it does not cost dear to indulge too lofty hopes ; when 
once they have looked towards a higher estate, that 
which might have rendered them happy no longer offers 
aught that is not distasteful. If a girl is to live in the 
country, turn her attention, at an early period, to the 
occupations she must engage in there, and do not let 
her taste the amusements of the city ; show her the 
advantages of a simple and active life. If she is of the 
middle class in the city, do not let her meet the people 
of the court ; such intercourse would only tend to make 
her assume a ridiculous and unsuitable bearing : keep 
her within the bounds of her station in life, and give her 
for models those who have succeeded best therein : pre- 
pare her mind for the things she is to do all her life ; 
teach her the economy of a plain household, the care 
she must take with regard to the income from the coun- 
try, with regard to the stocks and rents that constitute 
the city income, all that concerns the education of 
children, and, finally, the particulars of the other occu- 
pations of business or commerce upon which you foresee 
that she must enter when she is married. If, on the 
contrary, she determines to become a nun, without 
being driven to it by her parents, from that moment 
direct her whole education towards the condition to 
which she aspires ; make her give sober proof of the 
powers of her mind and body, without awaiting her 
novitiate, which is a kind of engagement on account of 
worldly honor ; accustom her to silence ; practice her in 
obedience with respect to matters opposed to her incli- 
nations and habits ; try to find out gradually of what she 



CONTINUATION OF THE DUTIES OF WOMEN. II3 

is capable with regard to the rule she wishes to take 
upon herself ; try to accustom her to a plain, sober, and 
laborious life ; show her in detail how happy and free is 
the person that can do without things which vanity and 
self-indulgence, or even the decorum of the world, make 
necessary outside of a cloister ; in a word, in making 
her practice poverty, teach her to find in it the blessed- 
ness that Jesus Christ has revealed to us. Finally, neg- 
lect nothing that may prevent leaving in her heart after 
she has quit the world, a taste for any of its vanities. 
Without exposing her to too dangerous experiences, lay 
bare the thorns concealed beneath the false joys afforded 
by the world ; call her attention to those in it who are 
unhappy in the midst of pleasures. 



I 14 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

GOVERNESSES. 

I foresee that, in the minds of many persons, this 
plan of education may pass for a chimerical project. It 
would require, they will say, extraordinary discernment, 
patience, and talent for its execution. Where are the 
governesses capable of comprehending it ? With still 
greater reason, where are those who can carry it out ? 
But I pray you to consider thoughtfully that when one 
undertakes to write a treatise upon the best education 
that can be given^rhildren, it is not with the purpose of 
giving an imperfect system. You should not, therefore, 
find fault with the fact that you meet with the utmost 
perfection in this investigation. It is true that each 
individual cannot in practice go as far as our thoughts 
run on paper when there is nothing to stop them ; but 
even when we cannot reach perfection in this undertak- 
ing, it will not be unavailing to have recognized it and 
striven to attain it ; these are the best means of ap- 
proaching it. Besides, this treatise does not take for 
granted a perfect disposition in children and a combina- 
tion of all the circumstances most fortunate for the 
production of a perfect education. On the contrary, I 
endeavor to give remedies for bad or spoiled disposi- 
tions ; I take for granted the usual mistakes in education 
and have recourse to the simplest methods of rectifying, 
in whole or in part, the training that has need of such a 



GOVERNESSES. 115 

process. True, you will not find in this little book, the 
means of making a neglected or badly conducted educa- 
tion successful : but should that astonish you ? Is not 
the best that you could desire, to find simple rules, the 
careful practice of which would constitute a thorough 
education ? I acknowledge that parents can and do 
every day, give less care to their children than I pro- 
pose ; but we see only too well how much the young 
suffer from this negligence. The road I point out is 
the shortest, however long it may appear, since it leads 
directly where you wish to go. The other road, that of 
fear and superficial culture of the mind, however short 
it may appear, is too long ; for by it the true end of 
education, which is to influence the minds of children 
and to inspire them with a sincere love of virtue, is 
hardly ever reached. The majority of the children that 
are led by this path, have to begin their education anew 
after it seems finished, and after having passed the first 
years of their introduction to the world in committing 
mistakes which are often irreparable, must depend on 
experience and their own reflections to reveal to them 
all the principles that this painful but superficial educa- 
tion could not instil. It should be further observed 
that the pains that I insist should be taken with children 
at the first, and that the inexperienced regard as bur- 
densome and impracticable, prevent much more trying 
annoyances and smooth away obstacles that become 
almost insurmountable in the course of a less careful 
and harsher education. In conclusion, remember that 
to carry out this plan, doing the things that require 
great talent, is less important than avoiding the gross 
mistakes that we have mentioned in detail. Often the 



Il6 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

only important things are to refrain from urging chil- 
dren forward, to be constantly near them, to watch them, 
to inspire their confidence, to reply clearly and wisely 
to their little questions, to allow them to act out their 
dispositions in order that you may understand them 
better, and to correct them patiently when they are 
mistaken or commit some fault. 

It is not fair to expect that a good education can be 
conducted by a poor governess. Surely it is enough to 
furnish rules for making one successful through the 
efforts of a person of average ability ; it is not asking 
too much of this person of average ability to expect her 
to possess at least good sense, a tractable disposition, 
and a true fear of God. Such a governess will find 
nothing subtle nor abstract in this treatise ; even if she 
should not comprehend it all, she will catch the general 
idea and that will suffice. Make her read it several 
times, take the trouble to read it with her, give her the 
privilege of stopping you at every point that she does 
not understand and of which she is not fully convinced ; 
then set her to practising it ; and, when you see her, in 
speaking to the child, lose sight of the rules of this 
treatise which she has agreed to follow, gently remind 
her of the fact in private. This diligence will be pain- 
ful to you at first ; but if you are the father or the 
mother of the child it is your bounden duty. Besides, 
you will not long have difficulties in this respect ; for the 
governess, if she be sensible and willing, will learn more 
in a month from her experience and your counsel than 
from long arguments ; soon she will walk in the right 
path of her own accord. You will have this further advan- 
tage to relieve you, that she will find in this little book 



GOVERNESSES. IIJ 

the principal statements that should be made to children 
about the most important truths, all arranged so that 
she will have little to do but to follow them out. Thus 
she will have before her eyes a collection of the conver- 
sations that she ought to carry on with the child. This 
is a sort of practical training which will lead her like a 
guiding hand. You may also avail yourself, with much 
profit, of the Historical Catechism which we have already 
mentioned ; have the governess whom you are training 
to read it several times, and also try to make her under- 
stand the preface thoroughly, so that she may catch the 
spirit of this method of instruction. It must be con- 
fessed perhaps, that these persons of ordinary ability to 
whom I have confined myself, are rarely to be found. 
But, after all, an instrument suited for the work of edu- 
cation is indispensable ; for the most simple things do 
not accomplish themselves, and are always badly done 
by unqualified persons. Choose, then, either from your 
household, or on your estate, or at the houses of your 
friends, or from well-ordered sisterhoods, some girl 
whom you think capable of receiving training : aim early 
at bringing her up for this employment, and keep her 
about you for some time to test her before entrusting 
her with so precious a charge. Five or six governesses 
trained to this method would soon be qualified to train 
a great number of others. Perhaps some drawback 
would be found in many of these ; but in this great 
number there would always be some to repay your 
efforts, and you would not be liable to the extreme 
embarrassment in which persons constantly find them- 
selves. The religious and secular communities that 
devote themselves, according to their regulations, to 



Il8 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 

training girls, might also adopt these ideas for training 
their mistresses of boarding-schools and teachers. 

But, although the difficulty of finding governesses is 
great, it must be acknowledged that there is another 
difficulty in education which is still greater; this results 
from parental defects ; all else is of no avail unless par- 
ents are willing to assist in this work. The foundation 
of everything is that they should give their children 
none but correct principles and edifying examples. This 
can be expected only in very few families. In most 
households we see only confusion, change, and a collec- 
tion of servants who are equally bad tempered them- 
selves, and a cause of division between the heads of the 
house. What a frightful school for children ! Often a 
mother who passes her life in play, at the theatre, and 
in improper conversations, complains in grave accents 
that she cannot find a governess qualified to train her 
daughters. What can the best education do for girls 
in contact with such a mother ? Often, too, we see par- 
ents, who, as St. Augustine says, take their children to 
public theatres and to other entertainments that cannot 
fail to give them a distaste for the sober and industrious 
life on which these very parents wish them to enter ; 
thus they mingle poison with wholesome food. They 
speak only of wisdom ; but they inure the volatile imag- 
inations of children to the violent excitements of impas- 
sioned acting and of music, after which the children are 
incapable of steady application. A taste of the passions 
is given them, and innocent pleasures are made insipid 
to them. Yet their parents still expect their education 
to prosper, and regard a training that will not allow this 
mixture of good and bad as depressing and severe. Is 



GOVERNESSES. I IQ 

not this trying to have the credit of desiring a good 
education for their children without being willing to 
take any trouble or to submit to the most indispensable 
requirements ? 

Let us close with the picture that the Wise Man 
has drawn of the virtuous woman: "Her price," he 
says, " is like the price of that which comes from afar 
and from the extremities of the earth. The heart of 
her husband trusts in her ; she never needs the spoils 
which he brings back from his victories ; she does him 
good all the days of her life and never evil. She seeks 
wool and flax : she works with hands that are full of 
wisdom. Laden like a merchant vessel, she brings her 
provisions from afar. She rises in the night and dis- 
tributes food to her servants. She considers a field and 
buys it with her labors, the fruit of her hands ; she 
plants a vineyard. She girdles her loins with might ; 
she strengthens her arms. She has tasted and seen 
how good her merchandise is : her candle never goes 
out through the night. Her hand lays hold on rude 
labors ; her fingers seize the distaff. She opens her 
hand, moreover, to the needy ; she stretches it out to the 
poor. She fears neither cold nor snow ; all her house- 
hold have lined garments; she has woven a robe for 
herself ; fine linen and purple are her clothing. Her 
husband is distinguished in the gates, that is to say, in 
the councils where he is seated with the most venerable 
men. She makes garments and sells them, girdles and 
delivers them to the Canaanites. Strength and beauty 
are her vestments, and she shall smile in her last hour. 
She opens her mouth with wisdom, and a law of kind- 
ness is on her tongue. She is observant in her house 



120 



THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 



even to foot-prints, and she never eats her bread without 
occupation. Her children rise up and call her blessed, 
her husband rises up also and he praises her: 'Many 
daughters,' says he, 'have heaped up riches; you have 
excelled them all. Favor is deceitful, and beauty is 
vain : the woman that fears God, she shall be praised. 
Give her of the fruit of her hands ; and in the gates, in 
the public councils, let her be praised by her own 
works.' " 

Although the extreme difference of the customs of 
that day from ours and the abruptness and boldness of 
the figures render this language, at first glance, obscure, 
he that examines it closely finds the style so vivid and 
full of meaning that he is soon charmed. But what I 
desire more to call your attention to, is the authority of 
Solomon, which is that of the Holy Spirit itself, who 
uses such exalted language to show us how much sim- 
plicity of manners, economy, and industry are to be 
admired in a woman of wealth and rank. 






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